Creative Pondering

Dear Friends,

Yet again it has been too long since I last wrote to you.  My apologies.  More and more I realize that grad school is a black hole.  There was a couple of months there where I didn't have any contact with the outside world beyond Durham.  At the end of these two months (i.e. finals time) I came out of the computer lab and discovered again the sky.  It is an amazing thing when you reacquaint yourself with the sky after a long absence... like old friends meeting in a coffee shop.  James and I decided to do something fun tonight.  He was going to post these pictures, and challenged me to write a post with them that tied everything together.  So here it goes...

As Memorial Day approaches, so approaches everything that is summer.  And for those of ya'll who live in the Southeast, you know the sweetest times of summer are in the early morning and late afternoon... after the threat of heat stroke and sunburn have passed with the rising and setting of the sun.  James has done an amazing job with the garden on our patio.  I keep telling him he has a "green thumb," although he denies it.  But look at these nastursium and these tomatoes in the brilliant light of a summer sunrise.  See you're convinced now too!  He does have a green thumb!

Nastursium in the Sun

 You know all that stuff I said about rediscovering the sky after months in a black hole... well this is an example of the type of sky views I am rediscovering.

Poplar and Sky

Now this one seems a little bizzare.  If only we could have a bee hive at our apartment, that would be amazing!  And chickens too... that would be fabulous.  But no, these are not our bees, these are the bees that were installed at the Honey Patch Garden that I oversee with my graduate student club, Farmhand.

Bees in Transport

Me and my Dear Sally

Tomatoes at Sunrise

And now for a sadder tale.  Yesterday I departed from my dear Sally.  As many of you know Sally is my car; she has been my independence and freedom on wheels for the past 9 years, and yesterday I had to let her go.  I'm not going to lie, I cried.  I am happy, however, to know she will be with another owner and continue to live out her life on the road.  I sold her for cheap, and I wanted to sell her for so much more.  In the process of selling her, I felt like I wanted to play one of those reels from the Mastercard commercials, and really prove to the sketchy car dealer that she was worth so much more.  Alas, to him she was just a car, but to me she will always be my Sally.

And with that, I think I have told you everything there is to tell with these pictures.  Hopefully, the updates will be more frequent this summer, now that I'm not in my black hole anymore.  I will try my best!

As for now, adieu and good night.  May the morning bring you the fulfillment of life in the simple things like dewdrops on tomato leaves refrecting sunlight at dawn.  And may you have peace and love surround you wherever you go.

-Sarah and James