Garden Therapy.

The world is a scary place sometimes. There are lots of things that scare me, including North Korea, brown recluse spiders, tornadoes, American politics, and the fact that my boyfriend is in the military. Yesterday, the world seemed scarier than usual, so, as has become my habit when I'm unhappy, I went outside and sat by the garden, drinking in the sight and feel of living, growing, beautiful things. I honestly think that they're nurturing me just as much as I'm nurturing them. Garden therapy.

I also finally got around to planting my ABC's (arugula, basil, and cilantro). For some reason it had taken me a while to get around to actually filling up the pots and putting in the seeds, but it was ok, because I really needed something simple and comforting and life-giving to do yesterday. There are now so many potted plants on the back step that it almost doesn't function as a way of getting in and out of the house.

The ABC's (from left to right: Arugula, Basil, Cilantro)

The rest of the garden is growing like mad. We had a lot of rain last week, including several days with rainfall amounts of more than one inch. I was worried that the fairly torrential downpour would hurt the fragile-looking baby plants, and the first night it stormed I ventured out twice in my pajamas with a flashlight and an umbrella to check on them. But they actually fared better than my bucket of pansies, who seemed to be living up to their name and got all droopy and sad looking for a day or so after the downpour. (They're better now, don't worry.)

Then yesterday the sun came out, and that combined with well-watered soil makes for happy plants. The peppers have finally emerged, as has the sage. I'm almost positive that the nasturtiums all grew at least a half inch yesterday while I was out running errands. I also finally accepted that my Amish Paste tomato seed probably didn't germinate, so I planted a few new ones, and hopefully these will do better.

Nasturtiums, with the zinnias in the background.

The green beans don't look like monsters anymore.

Cosmos

Earl, the early zinnia that was the first seedling to come up.

Then, as I was threading my way through the potted plants on the steps after taking the above pictures, I found this guy:

He was sitting on the cooler by the back door. I'm assuming it was a he, because he did this:

Just one more beautiful thing in life to appreciate.