gorgeous moments: stopping to look at the garden and pick up some garlic

the premise was an impromptu co-op board decision-quorum-meeting. but the happy consequence was another after-dinner family walk.

the kids got some after-dinner playtime in.

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then, the wife and i each got 10 minutes to ourselves to drink in the  summer garden blooms.

the gardening committee tends to the gardens; among whom, are some pretty amazing ladies with a sincere love for fostering the beauty that grows.

one of those wonderful ladies gifted me two heads of her very own garlic. and i was so excited as all get out trying to figure out just how to use them in a dish to make sure they sing. (yes, i really am this enthusiastic about homegrown garlic. i've already  made garlic bread, garlic potatoes, and tomorrow, tomato sauce. pesto after). i was also given a single shallot bulb... which is most definitely going into a salad dressing of some kind.

(there are pears growing in the garden, too!)

outside of our little home, in the co-op common grounds, our very humble first-ever-vegetable garden is starting to thrive, finally. 

and "by starting to thrive," i mean, the basil looks like it's finally happy because it's gotten so warm. and apparently, two carrots are growing out of all the seeds the wife dropped in weeks ago. there are three tomato plants, and i am (still) hopeful they will yield a small crop to enjoy. 

(it's the one to the right. the garden to the left is our neighbour's. they are clearly growing more than two carrots.)

apart from herbs, we've never attempted to grow our own food. and by "we," i mean, that i pick the plants, and the wife and son get to do the gardening. i'm just not into earth worms and rolly polly bugs. or digging in dirt, for that matter.

gorgeous, sunny, summery evenings like these painfully remind me to stay in the present. they fleet far and fast through my fingers.


soon enough, we will be engulfed in our usual gray, watery, winter. 

soon enough, the toddler giggles will give way to tweeny, teeny, sarcastic cynicism. the arms that throw themselves up and around us so easily and carelessly will be harder to reach.

soon enough, there will be time to define leisure differently. there will be time enough to grow gardens and clean our home and do things properly.

here i must i must i must stay present. aware. and appreciative. especially for all the things i can choose to leave by the wayside now, so that i can enjoy the all the things that inevitably pass with the all-season wind.