So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? – Ecclesiastes 2:24-25

Fridays have been shaping up to be our gardening day here at the Saint Patrick Street house. And that worked especially well this week with the gift of a deliciously cool spring morning here in Tarboro.

Then it was off to Lowes for mulch, and peat-moss, and plants, and ideas, and pruning sheers, and of course more toggle bolts for hanging stuff in the house, and shelving units, and caulk, and a caulking gun, and… and, as Yul Brynner famously said in The King and I, “etcetera etcetera etcetera.”

So if the Tarboro economy feels good to you about now, and you hear that hardware stores and gardening centers seem to be quite prosperous – well now you know.

Weeding precedes mulching, and there was some mowing and edging to do too (I haven’t killed that lovely grass yet). Then I have been closely examining what has been sprouting since I sowed my creeping purple thyme seeds – but at the moment there is no telling if it is going to be success or more weeds; time will tell.

This is all front yard progress and there is much more to do in the back, but at the moment it’s going to have to wait. Because as soon as I hit pause on the garden we got to work in the kitchen, hanging some really cool linen Roman shades that I am excited about because those west-facing windows sure do fight the air-conditioning in the late afternoon when I am cooking.

Today, as beautiful as it is, is bound to be more of the same. It is very much as The Teacher explained things in the Ecclesiastes passage I quoted above (especially as I squeezed in grilling a marvelous tenderloin between working in the garden and hanging the blinds): “there (really) is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God…” 

I will absolutely add my “Amen” to that – DEREK