Ink & Pixels
stories worth sharing
There's the annual kids-in-the-dirt potato scavenger hunt, which involves a lot of giggling and a muddy bath afterward. My neighbour's plum tree was cracking from the weight, so we picked a few baskets and froze plum concentrate for drinks. I had a boon of sweet peas, which has been so delightful while the roses catch their breath. Dill abounds, nasturtiums mound, the beans are spiralling up, and the peas are winding down.
June is the second best month in our backyard. Of course, first place must be reserved for August, when the garden is overflowing with peppers, heirloom cherry tomatoes, and early apples—but there's nothing quite like that flood of flowers in every colour. The air is either spiked with daphne, honeysuckle, mock orange, or roses—wow. We call our just-under-an-acreage Freedman's Eden for good reason!
196 plump, papery cloves planted, exactly doubling this July’s harvest of 98 bulbs. I am very pleased with the quality of growing stock; these are the grandchildren (3rd planting) of the free bulbs I was given during the March 2020 lockdown. A positive pandemic legacy, large enough to provide both future stock and a year’s worth of eating garlic, I’m figuring.
The watcher waters, waits
for seeds to leaf in two, then four.
The quickest end
to this green vigil
is to plant a few rows more.
I wonder,
as I wander
through this furrowed, dirty sea,
How slow
seem I to grow
the seeds planted in me?
Ashley Reiter is a speculative fiction writer based in British Columbia. Her debut novel, Resonance Between Our Suns, is now in Kickstarter prelaunch. She is the author of the children's picture books The Lonely Bear Who Went Looking For A Party and Tell Me a Story Mumma.
Crafting Eden, her monthly newsletter, invites readers into finding more of the beautiful, resonant, and true.
