Happy Easter everyone!
He is Risen!
Easter Sunday was a day FULL of wonderful things. Saturday afternoon the band was supposed to play a gig in Mineral Wells at the Cowboy Poetry Reading, but it was canceled due to inclement weather. We watched as it boiled up all around us, but little more than a drop came down at the Shady B.
We had lots of great company saturday night too - band members that have to drive a good distance to church each sunday, so they wanted to be close by for that sunrise service we were performing. We had a good jam session around the kitchen table, practicing our tunes for the next day.
My alarm went off at 3:30 am - seven people had to make it through the bathroom in time to leave by 5:30, so Larry and I went first. We were all coffeed up by 5:00 and ready to go. The first easter sunrise service at the Brazos Trails Cowboy Church was a beautiful success, despite the clouds and the cool wind. The band played acoustically, which I always love best. Two fiddles, two guitars, one washboard, and six practiced voices. The preacher stood on the buckboard wagon in the parking lot and told us the story about easter morning. How when they went to the tomb, they found the stone rolled back and nothing inside but the linens and blood stains.
Cowboy Chuckwagon breakfast - yum - served hot by hard working members that arrived earlier than we did. It was nice to walk in and find people happily busy, each serving an integral part in the success of the day. After a nice break, in which most of us would have taken a nap:) if there'd been a sofa anywhere, we had our regular service. 180 people in attendance and a lot of them stayed for lunch too. Yet another chuckwagon barbeque dinner. Fabulous brisquit and lots of deviled eggs. I brought about four dozen, and there were three or four times that. I think they were all gobbled up by hungry easter egg hunters, because that is what was next - out in the front pasture of the church, hundreds of colored eggs were gathered by booted, bowed and be-ribonned cowkids of all sizes. Then more festivities in the arena. We didn't stay for that. We were beat. We came home and did what we had to - attended to our animals, changed into comfy clothes and sat on the sofa all afternoon. We were stuffed full of good food, and great memories of the day. Watched a Hallmark movie that made us feel good. Slept like babies.
We've been busy busy busy here at the ranch, building our new raised beds, my fabulous Christmas present from Larry this year. Lots of work building and filling them with good soil, but we finally got the last wheelbarrow load shoveled in with the help of friends:) If you come to the Shady B, likely we'll hand you some gloves and put you to work:)
Seems there is always something. Everywhere I look, I see things that need finishing, painting, cleaning, arranging. And all the while, my head is designing more gardens, and creating lovely spaces. All it takes is time and money - we've all heard that before haven't we?
But I am trying to simplify some things so we don't have so much to weedeat. I can hardly start the dumb thing and I love nice edgings. So we have pulled out some of the more troublesome beds and have put in grass, taking away those bothersome edges, planted some of the marvelous double knock out roses, and generally cleaned up the look of the place.
Every spring, I want to surround myself with color and beauty. I want to eat the bounty that the earth gives forth, and smell the greenness of it all. I want to mow, and plant, and shovel dirt. I want to dig my bare hands into the ground and come up with a worm. I want to sit and watch my garden grow as it changes each day.
Last night we had one of those storms that you lay awake and wonder about. I worried over my new plants, the tender new growth of my peas and tomatoes. The giant leaves of my squash. The tender newness of my lettuce. I worried if the studio was flooding, which it often does when we have a downpour after such a drought. And then, living out here in the country, how would we know when it was time to get in the basement or otherwise? But I finally melted into my safe and warm, dry, cozy pillows and relaxed in the knowledge that it is what it is, and the storm cloaked me with the comforting patter on our tin roof, and the wetness soaking into the ground outside - it all put me to sleep. Even the hail didn't loosen the safety I felt next to my snoring husband and the dog in the hallway.
So this morning all is well. No damage to my garden. All is washed new. The air is fresh and clean, the wind is gusty, and my garden is growing.
Say it with a SMILE and a handmade TILE! www.ShadybRanch.net www.tilesmile.etsy.com www.tilesmile.artfire.com
