Maria says the best flower sales by far are the church sales, and church flower sales in the Spring are a deep and enduring tradition in our town, as in many others. One of the many threads of community run through a small town.

Maria bought a  trunkful of flowers from the Methodist Church gardeners on Main Street, she said she got about five times as many flowers as she would have gotten at a commercial nursery. She spent about $50 and was delighted. We went out looking for a tree to buy were not successful.

The Methodist plant sale was great fun. Many of the garden club people had read my books and wanted to know about Simon and the dogs. Some had been following me for years. They were eager to talk about their plants, some of which had been around for centuries, but we never heard of them.

Maria was excited to get an “Outhouse plant,” more about that later. She said she could only have gotten three plants for $50 at the nursery. Our gardens will be exploding this year, we are both into them. This weekend, we are also going to plant the Three Sisters Garden.

Memorial Day is the official season kickoff for many gardeners, we have six or seven gardens now at Bedlam Farm, gardening really touches Maria’s heart and soul.

I can’t take as much of the heat or humidity as she can, and the heart medication doesn’t like the sun,  but I do try to pitch in, mostly by weeding and watering.

We are planning for a quiet weekend, maybe a movie on Sunday (The Rider). Lots of reading, talking, writing, gardening. We are grateful for our lives and our time together.