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Sunday, April 06, 2008

Self-control

The chicken are speaking to me...are they hungry? Do they want us to gather the eggs? Do they want their coop cleaned out? Do they want it to stop raining?
I'm not sure how often I actually hear them, as I have developed a great ability to ignore them in their chatter...
It's Sunday, and we don't have much planned today. My house has returned to disorder, due mostly to the fact that on Thursday we had glorious weather here, and I opted to return to my gardening duties. I have begun the process of moving my gigantomous Hidcote lavender from the front of the house, to the backyard, where, I can overlook it's needs as I do my chatty chickens. I love that our guests are greeted by their wonderful smells(the lavender, not the chickens), but the lavender has grown woody and I don't prune them as often as needed, hence, not so pretty. I like plants that need pruning, but I am a slow pruner. I am in need of a pruning tutor, mentor perhaps. OK, maybe someone sitting close by to supervise me while I prune. Seems as though my mother did that on her last visit...
So I spent the afternoon on Thursday in the garden. It felt so good to be outside working, as I am, sad to say, a fair weather gardener. Evander mowed the front lawn, and I mowed the back. Things progressed so well that I even pulled out my seed box. I was prepared to throw caution to the wind, and plant some seeds in the garden, when Emma informed me, it was time to go to the Cub Scout's Roundtable meeting. I stopped just as I was about to open the package. Alas, the rain has since returned, the seed packets are all over the kitchen table, and the lavender plant that I moved, isn't really in the ground.
Saturday's run notables...
I didn't see the moon on Saturday morning, but the sun seemed to be rising as we began our run. Heidi and I ran the first part of the Eugene Half Marathon course. About four miles into the course is South Eugene High School. Well, Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton just happened to be scheduled to show up at the school a few hours after our run. People had already begun to line up outside the school to get into the event. As Heidi and I ran by it was really, really, really hard not to taunt or heckle the crowd, as I am not a fan of Hillary. I joked with Heidi about what great self-control I had in not yelling, “Go John!” (Granted I don't know much about John McCain, and don't know if I will vote for him, but know I don't like Hillary). As I write this, I think that it probably was a good idea that I didn't taunt these Hillary supporters. Political supporters can be quite rabid, and now I envision their response to my teasing with Heidi and I running for our lives up East 19th street. Our safe half marathon pace would be pressed to an all out sprint to avoid the clutches of those I had offended.
It's a good thing I have self-control.

1 comments:

Cherie said...

My lavender plants gives me hours and hours of pleasure, too. It's in my herb garden near my back porch, the place I go to meditate when the crowds crush too closely.

Thursday was a GREAT day for gardening, you are right. We did some as well. We also gardened in the rain on Friday and Saturday, too. In Western Oregon, as you know, one can't be too picky or one is housebound. ;)

Good for you for demonstrating Christian charity by letting Hillary's supporters do their thing without being heckled for it.