Susan, Mary Gordon & Royito

It was like old home week! Except this time I wasn't in the company of my brother Roy and my sister Susan. I was in the company of brother and sister Roy and Susan Blount.

People ask Roy why he hasn't dumped that Georgia accent. Roy says that even though some mighty stupid things have been said with a Southern accent, there is nothing wrong with the accent itself. I couldn't agree more!

A brighter view

It's not just the skies that have been cloudy; my mind has been a little cloudy, too. Saturday I got inspired to wash the window over my kitchen sink. My, my, what a crystal clear view of my backyard I got. Now even though the skies are overcast, I'm seeing things with great clarity!

Blogging

I set out to become a regular blogger. Instead, I’m a regular blogger who blogs irregularly. That’s how I do everything—why should blogging be any different?

Sunny side up

My friend Molly walked into Casa Garcia’s this morning carrying a pink egg carton. When she sat down beside me for breakfast, she said, “I brought you some eggs!”

Now I’ve had lots of friends bring me a little something from time to time, but I can’t remember anyone ever bringing me a carton of eggs. What made this gift so special was that Molly and her husband Jon grew these eggs. OK. I’m not sure if you say people grow eggs or not. What I am sure about is that these eggs came from the 12 beautiful chickens that live in the finest chicken coop you’ve ever seen—and that the eggs and the coop belong to Molly and Jon. I got to see the chickens only a few days after they had come to live in this fine coop—before they were laying or doing much of anything else.

Six weeks later, these chickens are doing their thing, and each one usually lays an egg every day—in a variety of colors. And I get to be on the receiving end of the chickens, and Molly’s, bounty.

I’m fixing to rewrite Guy Clark’s song to include eggs: “There are only 3 things that money can’t buy—that’s true love, homegrown tomatoes and homegrown eggs.”

Our tomatoes are in!

Three-year-old William Spence Newby and I got down to work on Friday, March 20. Maybe I should say, we got down to play, for we both had a wonderful time planting our 2009 tomatoes. I had prepared the soil in the flowerbed before William arrived. His job was to put the plants into the ground.

At first William was hesitant to step in the dirt. I told him it was like playing in the sand at the beach, and that did the trick. When William found a few rocks in the freshly turned soil, I suggested that he toss them out of the bed. This became the highlight of the planting ceremony: plant a little; toss a little; plant a little; toss a little. We managed to get 9 plants inside the bed; then we went to work on the soil in the rest of our garden. William used his whole body to mix some revitalizing compounds in with the South Austin dirt.

After planting all our tomatoes, it was time to water. This is what William loves to do best. So he watered. And watered.

When it seemed that all our work might just float down the street, we “shut her off.” Then we admired our work and William headed for the bath tub.

There are only two things that money can’t buy…and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes. With my precious grandson, William, I have it all!