City Girl Becomes a Country Girl | by Linda Brendle

It’s been an emotional week that started Sunday night with the long awaited phone call telling me that Mom had died peacefully in her sleep. Since then I have helped make plans, contacted friends and relatives, and responded to an overwhelming outpouring of love and support. I’ve posted a couple of tributes, and I’m sure there will be more as I work through my feelings about her life and her death, but this morning I thought I’d share something a little lighter.

I Planted a Garden Today | by Linda Brendle

No, this isn’t my garden.

I planted a garden today. It’s not the garden I envisioned earlier in the year. Now that we’ve removed several trees, we have some perfect garden spots that get full sun, and David’s mom has a tiller she has offered to give us. In February I imagined a large area, tilled and mulched and fertilized, ready for several rows of squash and okra and beans, all those things that are so good for you but are so expensive in the grocery store. Then we began to make tentative plans to visit Florida for a month or so this summer, so I watched with envy as neighbors laid out their garden plots and tended the tiny green plants that stretched toward the warm Texas sun. But plans don’t always work out, and this week we realized that the trip to Florida isn’t going to happen, so when we went to Hooten’s yesterday to get some oil for the chain saw, I asked David a question.

“Is it too late to plant tomatoes?”