Day number ?

Good Morning Multiply, happy Sunday!

I am not quite sure what day it is in the 30 day challenge. I will have to go back and check to see which day I wrote the original blog on blogging for the consecutive days. I know it's been difficult for some of you and it always seems harder when you aren't quite even half way there. So I thank you for sticking with it. Those that have been writing blogs and those who have come by to read them and leave comments. For most of us, it is those comments that really are the highlight of the original blog.

I know it's hard to think up something new to write each day. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to write a blog that is informative, witty, or thought provoking. A blog can be all of those things, but it can be easier. It can be a pic of something you came across that day. It can be a new recipe you have tried, or your experience at a new place or thing.

Sometimes we make it harder than it needs to be. Not only in blogging but in our own personal lives. I tend to do that a lot. I always have to do things the hard way, because I think that is the right way, the only way, or it is the only way or option that I feel I have.

When my twin brother was back last year he moved into a small house with a huge yard. Very different from the 3 story house and postage stamp yard he use to have. It was a big adjustment for him, and I will never forget what he said when he decided to move back to his old stomping ground back East.

"I don't want to be a slave to the land".

I could only roll my eyes at his declaration. Having never really done much yard work in the last 20+ years, I am sure he felt overwhelmed with his big yard. You would think having 3 dogs, he would have loved to had the space for them to run. Instead he fenced off a small area for them and did nothing with the rest of the yard except mow the grass and take a chainsaw to the trees.

He mowed, weekly. He raked, weekly. He trimmed trees constantly. He burned brush piles monthly. He trimmed, he sweated, he complained. He started trimming past his property line, onto alley ways and contemplated trimming trees at an empty house across the way. It wasn't his duty. It wasn't his responsibility. He has a set mind of how things are suppose to be done and it was his way all the way when it came to yard work.

He made it harder than it needed to be. He made himself that slave to the land. The land was just there, growing, existing, and beautiful in it's natural state or when it was neatly groomed. He just wasn't cut out for the outdoors. He saw it as a chore, a burden, something that had to fit into his idea of what it had to be.

Funny how twins can be such opposites. There can be times I get sick and tired of weeding and trimming and outdoor chores. But I find a joy in digging in the dirt, watching something grow, and trying to go hand in hand with mother nature and the beauty she creates. I see it more as an opportunity, something positive.

And yet, when chatting with my mom about doing some fall planting, she exclaimed, "don't' you have enough"?..."Don't you think you have way more than you can handle?"...

My immediate answer was "no". But it has me thinking today as I thumb thru 5 new fall catalogs that have come in the mail this week, that maybe I should rethink planting anything new. I have already ruled out planting any more iris as it is too hot and dry. Mid-July thru the 1st of September is when tall bearded iris are usually planted. With 100 degree temps, and no rain in sight, it would be foolish to attempt to plant anything right now.

But the pictures of the blooms keep calling me. I find myself dwelling on the pages of peonies, alliums, daffodils, and tulips. I keep reminding myself, no tulips...can't plant tulips. The squirrels eat the tulips, so I, with a sighing regret, bypass the tulips too. No iris or tulips this year....

But peonies, I want new peonies. I want peonies in colors and shapes and forms that I don't have. I want pink ones, white ones, red ones, coral ones. I don't have a coral colored peony. I feel deprived. I feel the need to plant not just one, but bunches of new peonies. I have 6 tree peonies already, and I have 6 herbaceous peonies. You would think a dozen peonies is enough. Adding more peonies, bulbs, fall perennials is adding more toil and sweat, and weeding to my work list.

Am I a slave to the land? Quite possibly. Sometimes it is hard to break free of those chains, and sometimes it's not really seen as chains, but as an investment. An investment of the land and of yourself into making something, growing something, beautiful.