Yesterday Was A Good Day

I had a shift at the store yesterday. As many of you know I'm a crafter and belong to Sign of the Dove, an artist's cooperative in Porter Square. Our members do all the work at the store including the shifts. Usually things are pretty dead. The economy has been bad, so not many want to spend extra money for hand made items when they can buy something cheaper at some big box store.

Yesterday seemed like before the recession hit. We had a lot of people in the store and they were all very happy. It is fun when the customers are in a good mood and want to chat. Everyone seemed to be in the holiday spirit. Even customers that didn't know one another were laughing together.

But even better was when I got home and opened the mail. I received three envelopes, all seed from my blogging friends. Becky's was especially fun since she sent a hummingbird card and inside was some of her scarlet runner beans. Scarlet runner beans attract humming birds. I've only once seen a humming bird in my garden. It came and decided not to stay and quickly hummed away. I planted bee balm in my garden this year (no blooms the first year) to try to get them to stay in the garden. Maybe they will come to my scarlet runner beans?

Then came the envelope from EG. Somehow he didn't make it on the list I made yesterday (must have got lost when sorting the list). Sorry EG! He sent me some unnamed romaine and the best of all some Opalka tomatoes. I was going to buy them from Fedco as they raved about the taste. I had dithered about getting the early Heinz tomatoes (which would probably grow better in my climate), but couldn't resist the Opalkas. So I jumped on getting them from EG. Then I could buy the Heinz from Fedco.

The last but not least for the seeds is some Paris Island romaine and Ching Chang bok choy from Granny. The bok choy seeds hadn't even been opened. Obviously Granny is not so into those Asian greens like I am. Maybe I should send them back and try to convert her. Nah! So now I have myself some Garden Girl seeds.

Then I noticed my husband had put a Fed Ex envelope on my chair. Fed Ex? What in the world was coming from Fed Ex? It was a $50 AmEx gift card. Whoo hoo! I won a contest from the Inadvertent Gardener. Interestingly enough it was from the Pork Board. You had to say how you use pork in the holidays (and every comment gave $5 of pork to the homeless). What I didn't say was that last year for Christmas we brought homemade Chinese pork buns. This year I'm bringing a ham. We are debating appetizers. I might bring a veggie black bean soup, but it might be homemade dumplings (gyoza). Maybe I'll just bring both. But for the gift certificate, you just know it is going to get spent on something garden related. I have such a huge list of things I would love for the garden.

And the best of all, my son came home from school yesterday. So now my whole family is home for the holidays. I wish everyday would be so fabulous.