.a boy laying in the sun

I can't recall the last time I just laid down in the grass and breathed the warm spring air. Well actually I can it was just this morning, but I can't recall the last time prior to that. I don't even have a lawn to lay down on and haven't had a lawn for over 10 years. Even when I had what might be called a lawn in the last twenty-five years it was always more of a place to park my car and/or for my dog Rudy to poop, and you just don't want to lay down in poop... not fun.

So What spawned this momentous occasion you ask? Well I was working in my garden... Oh right, you're probably wondering how I came by a space for a garden if I don't even have a lawn. Allow me to back up here a bit. A year or two ago Meg got this idea about acquiring space at the local community garden. We got onto a list and our number came up this past winter. So we are now leasing space in the community garden.

So this morning we all went down to the garden and started the process by cleaning out the 10'x14' space formerly owned by someone who enjoyed growing onions, chives and some purple flower things. We dug those all up along with some weeds and the four "raised beds", which were nothing more than 2x8 planks resting on the ground within the area defined as plot #32.

The thing is I haven't ever gardened before and I haven't worked out in.. well forever. So I damn near passed out... as in fainted... from over exerting myself while cleaning out good old plot #32. So I laid down... on the grass. I soaked in a few rays of vitamin D and just dreamed about the tomato sandwiches I'll hopefully be eating this summer.

The air was flush with the smell of oregano... which may have come from the "weeds" I pulled... oops was that oregano? The sky was blue with wispy clouds scattered about and the sun was warm against my pale, noticeably aging skin. But I was for a few moments a boy laying in the sun on the lawn outside my parents house.

And so begins the trials and tribulations of organic gardening at plot #32 in the New Eden Community Garden. {B. Silliker}