Frost at the Temple Terrace Community Garden

As expected at the Saturday work day, late Sunday afternoon, there was a freeze watch posted on Sunday afternoon for midnight until 9AM on Monday morning.  About 4 PM, I went down to the garden and found another work day!  Carrie and Nancy decided to harvest everything they had prior to the frost and added some top soil.  Another person was down placing blankets on her crops.  I tented mine (wish I had taken a picture of that- it was quite a scene).  Hank (Travis' young son) got down close to the ground to help me close all the cracks.  Then Hank, Travis and I got a lot of wood and anchored down the covers.  Travis also promised me that he would take down my covers in the morning when he brought Hank to school (Thanks Travis- I had a very hard morning!)

By 7PM, the freeze watch had turned to a freeze warning.  It was going to get below 32 degrees for several hours and plants that were not covered or brought in doors were going to  be at risk.  Jennifer Marshall went down early the next morning and took these pictures (posted at the TTCG Facebook page):

My heart sunk. Everything was covered with frost! Would my covers be enough?  After work today, I had a few minutes of day light and rushed down to my plants to see if there was damage.  

 

From a distance, the garden looked like nothing had changed:

Here is the sunflower that greets us as we come in from the south.  Looks bright and sunny.

But then here is my tomato- think that the plants will survive and the tomatoes looked great. But almost all the growth at the top of the tomatoes was dead- lost about a foot of height.

 Here were selected parts of the garden that look as if nothing has happened:

Cabbage like plants look happy and fresh.  Carrots were unharmed.  These were plants that were not covered.

My herbs (covered) were well and happy

Even tiny carrot plants looked fine

Look at the this beautiful lettuce!  These were not covered.

Petunias in the thieves garden look great!

Brussels sprouts look ready to keep growing

Dill flowers are still blooming

Collards are just gorgeous

There were some plants that were devastated.  Most of the uncovered tomatoes were pretty sad, but some were untouched.  New plants that are not cabbage-family, carrots, or lettuce look wilted.  My new plants that were covered with Spanish moss were very not affected- so this is something to remember for the future. All in all, from the perspective of my untrained eye this evening, we weathered the frost fairly well.  Let's hope that things look this good on Saturday.  

Just like Florida, this evening it was 70 degrees and the temperature is not expected to drop below 50 in the next few days.  Let you know what I see on Saturday!

Green Tomato Topped Macaroni and Cheese

Last week I tried adding sliced green tomatoes to my ordinary macaroni and cheese (which I love).  Took some photos yesterday of a more complicated recipe that I didn't like as well, so I will give you the correct recipe here and those photos from yesterday that more or less match it (if you see onions and prosciutto please ignore them- and if you add onions and prosciutto to yours don't add the green tomatoes because they don't go together).

(Post in progress)...

Topping of sliced green tomatoes with a little panko bread crumbs over macaroni and cheese sauce.  After adding sauce and topping bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Start by adding 2 tbsp better and 2 tbsp flour to a 2 cup container

Add milk up to the one cup mark- then microwave 30 seconds at a time until thick- add 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

This is a small green tomato- it was used to create all the slices seen in photo up top- slice very thin

Saturday Morning at the Temple Terrace Community Garden (Feb 16 2013)

 Today I went to the Temple Terrace Community Garden- just like every Saturday morning.  Today was a special occasion- there was a new sign honoring Cheri Donahue for her support of the garden.
Here is the new sign:

I am in the middle with the sunglasses.

After the sign celebration, I discovered a new food: Brussels Sprouts greens

I'm going to cook them just like collards and have them with my ham steak (from A Simpler Place in Time) tomorrow.  Think it will be yummy!

Do you know how Brussels sprouts form?  You pull off the leaves and from the bud on the stalk- a little sprout emerges!  Here is how the stalks looked after the leaves were removed:

I learned this while hanging out at our 'Thieves Garden' outside our fence.  The very best thing about a community garden is the people that you meet. Steve McBride is always ready to share his gardening expertise- our soil wouldn't have been half as good as it is without his knowledge of lasagna layers.  Today he told me that we were having a frost coming on Monday morning and we discussed the best way to protect my tender new shoots.  One of his favorite Florida gardening solutions is Spanish Moss- it makes great layers in the garden- it makes a great fertilizer tea- and today I learned that it makes great frost protection for shoots close to the ground.  Travis Malloy works harder than anyone in the garden and I don't remember a work day without him there.  His family donated our shed and helped us get it into place.  Today, we learned that he made his canoe available to TTCG members- which should be fun and great exercise. I am personally indebted to Carrie and Nancy who tirelessly helped me build the layers of my garden.  I couldn't handle a wheel barrow full of composted materials and they filled up the wheel barrows more often than not while I was putting down layers of the more easily carried brown materials.  Every time we turn around, there is someone new who has something valuable to offer and wants to help.  The people in the garden are the greatest treasure.  We talked about continuity, helping the local schools educate children on building gardens, growing a living fence at our new garden at Greco Middle school, and Travis presented his plans for the new plots at the Riverhills garden.

Thanks to all the help from the people I've met, my garden is thriving.
Here are some of my photos this morning from my plot:

Baby lettuce ready to clip

Lots of tomatoes ready to pick before the bugs get them!

Some Thai peppers ready to bring home to my son!

Dill is starting to go to seed.  Amazing size compared to what I've been able to grow on the porch!

Love this parsley- you can cut and cut and it keeps growing it all back!

Love that the beautiful mosaic tiles are having a second life here!

One of the tiles

And here is my basket for the week!

Effects of Trauma

Today's readings
Today's reflection

In today's readings and reflections, I see an encouragement to reach out to those who are hurting and give them words that will help them out of the darkness and into the light.

Here is a really good article about the effects of trauma by Lynn Margolies, who is a noted researcher in the field. At the end of the year I described yesterday, almost everyone in my family was suffering from the effects of trauma.  While the photos below of my Mom were taken 18 years apart, she looked a lot like the first picture at the beginning of that year, and a lot worse than the second picture at the end of that year.




When my Mom was a young woman, she lived a life where she had been a championship swimmer, diver, and skater. She was an accomplished pianist and had taken classes at the Yale School of Music. She was a great writer and was told by her college professor that she needed to write professionally. And when she walked down the street, men whistled. I'd love to say that she was a great Mom during that time, but she was really full of herself, and most of the nurturing memories that I have that young were of my Dad.

This is a story that my Mom told me about the time she nearly died. She saw the light- she wanted to be in the light- God told her that if she wanted to die she could come now- but before she did- he wanted to show her what would happen to me. He showed her a version of myself that horrified her and said that if she was gone, then I'd always be the person that she saw, so she came back. The doctors had already decided that she was gone and were wheeling her away. The neighbor that came with her said, "She can't die- she has 5 children under the age of 7!". So the doctor made one last check, he held a mirror up to my Mom's nose and she used every last ounce of strength in her body to give one breath- and then they brought her back. 

For all of us who lived through that year together, we felt the loss of innocence. My Mom and I lost a lot of the memory of what had happened on that day. My father couldn't really live with himself- I think that he saw himself as a monster- and the longer he lived with that image of himself- without being able to forgive himself or to be forgiven, the more he descended into alcohol and the more he became the man that he believed himself to be. It was if my father had died on that day and the man that was left just wasn't my father. Even writing this, I mourn the passing of my father in 1959- even though his physical body died in 1994. But in losing my loving, nurturing father, I gained a loving, nurturing Mom.

 For me, because of the death threats, the world was no longer safe, sane, and secure. Every time during that year and even for years afterwards, every time I had my fingers on a little bit of safety or sanity, it evaporated. I was very much like the person in today's reading why God had done this to me- not realizing that God was always there, helping me survive the struggle.

My Mom gained most her her weight in that year.  At the end of that year, she lost all of her teeth.  She was 28 and thought that her life was over.   I have no pictures of her during most of the darkest times of her life.  The picture below is after she lost a lot of her weight and had done a lot to come out of her personal trauma world.

Donald Trump posted a comment to the general public that I think that a lot of people might think was a pretty good response to yesterday's post.

Take responsibility for yourself--it's a very empowering attitude.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2013

But there is another truth:
"We live in a world full of animals"

No one is responsible for the bad things that happen to them.  Our bodies respond in very natural ways to trauma- all animals do.  Look at a photo of an abused cat or dog- they are physically depressed, neglect themselves, and may even inflict self-injurious behavior on themselves.  Elephants that are abused can go into incredibly destructive rages.  Elephants that are stressed due to loss of habitat have been seen abusing other large animals in the wild. This is not their underlying nature, this is how they react to unbearable stress.

While we are under the effects of trauma, it is hard to take responsibility for ourselves.  But my Mom had a saying that she pounded into my head as she watched me descend deeper and deeper into a world of my own- "Some day, you are going to wake up and find out there is a world going on around you" (which is very true) but she continued, "that you won't be able to join" which was not true.  The way to re-join the world is through recovery. 

Here is today's kernel: We can't take responsibility for the bad things that happen to us- but we can take responsibility for our recovery.

Living and Dying

The other day, I replied to one of Donald Trump's tweets- just like I do just about every day. But unlike every other day, this day he answered me back!

@maryrosesgardenMary--Great!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2013

Another thing that I should do every day is to start out the day with a message from God.  To me, God talks to me through the daily Mass readings.  Here is a link to today's:
Readings for February 14, 2013

and Reflection on the Readings

The message is clear: Live or Die.  Trust in the Lord and do whatever you need to be the person that he created you to be this day or die.  There is more than one way to die. The first photo here is me as a Wonder Child.

The Discipline of Self-Esteem is the story of how I went from the middle photo to the last photo. But to tell a story like this one, you need to 'qualify'- that is you need to let the world know that what you sharethis  is worth reading. I need to tell you how I went from the smiling baby in the first photo to the girl in the middle. This is my sixth grade self.  This is a girl who had forgotten how to laugh- who didn't even know that she could laugh- until one day her grandparents took her to the top of the Sleeping Giant outside New Haven CT- where she reveled in the beauty of God's creation and her grandmother showed her these pictures that showed that once upon a time, she smiled and laughed and was free.

This is me on my 60th birthday.  As you can see, I can laugh again. 

But first, let me tell you the story of how I went from the smiling baby to the middle child- just the highlights.  There was a day when I was barely 7 years old when my father wouldn't let me see my mother- and I knew something was wrong- so I started to go in anyway.  He picked me up and threw me 20 feet toward a 2nd story window- and I learned to swim in the air so that I landed safely against a lamp.  He was alarmed to see that I missed the window and threatened me with death if I ever told anyone.  Despite all that, I managed to get into that room when my father went downstairs to make breakfast, call for help, and then get myself off to school.  It was not a good day- and after my father threatened me if I ever told anyone ever again- I forgot all about it for 30 years.  Shortly after coming home, a neighbor scolded me for waking a baby and I was so frightened (without knowing why) that I crossed the street without looking and was hit by a car.  They tell me that I went 20 feet into the air- but all I remember is landing safely on the hill on the other side.  While I was recovering from that, my best friend in the whole world died.  What's worse was that my last public words to him were: I hope you get a cold and die- and that is just what happened.  We had made up before he passed- but the kids who were there remembered and wondered if I was a witch.  My father broke his leg and lost his job, all 5 of us children caught the chicken pox, followed by the measles, and my brother Michael nearly died of measles encephalitis.  All of that happened within one year of the event- and we moved twice.  Kids laugh at what they don't understand, so the following year- and the following three years- I became the kid who was bullied in the school.  At home, Mom and Dad were overwhelmed, so they relied on me to be strong and take care of the kids.  The kids resented me because my parents favored me and because they didn't want to be bossed by their big sister.

There were two things that got me through: books and babies- but that is another story.  For today, all I can say is that I grew up without really dealing with my trauma, and so there was more of it.  With God's help and the help of friends and coworkers, telling my story, and learning how to deal with trauma over a 20 year period, I became the person that I am today- in the last photo.  A person who even at 60, can still be a Wonder Child.  There is still a lot to overcome, but in the process, I've become wise.  Telling my story helps me to become wiser. I don't know what you've dealt with in your life but whatever it is and has been, I think that my wisdom will help in your journey.  And so we start.

Changes and Wonderings

Yesterday, I pointed someone to my Wonder Child poem.  Then I read it.  Most of the time, when I re-read my stuff, I'm astounded by how profound it is.  But today, I was very surprised to find that while I still loved my poem, the explanation at the bottom was so angry.  Obviously, I've changed a lot.  Today, I see this poem as being all about how people seek self-esteem.  There are all the invalid ways of seeking self-esteem- escapism, addictive behavior (food, drink, sex, accumulating possessions, power, and fame), dominating, belittling and controlling others.  These are all ways to make you artificially feel better.  Then there is the discipline of self-esteem way.  When you have the discipline of self-esteem, you understand who you are in relation to God, who you were created to be, and you are being that person.  Today is the first day of Lent.  The Sunday readings of Lent Cycle A taught me a lot about this discipline right after I wrote this poem.  This year, I plan to make the journey again and take you with me.  When you are living the Discipline of Self-Esteem, you are being the Wonder Child. Your soul flies.  My soul flies when I am writing, when I am talking about family and memories, when I am solving an extremely complicated problem, when I am in the garden- when I see my garden of accomplishments and dreams bearing fruit- when I look and feel beautiful. I really think that the best examination of conscience you can do is to ask yourself if you feel like a wonder child.  If you do, then all is right in your world.  If not, then something needs to be fixed.  Hope to write something every day.  Not planning a structure because I always ignore it anyway- just living one day at a time and finding things for my Wonder Child to love!