Happiness Is . . .

We are beginning a very happy time of year for me: garden produce season. It's also a very strenuous time of year, of course, with all the planting and the weeding and the staking . . . but also easier, in a way. I LOVE not having to think about buying vegetables at the store, love just walking 50 feet to the garden and picking something for dinner, or lunch, or whatever. When the garden is producing, I have way more variety and options than I ever did buying stuff at the grocery store. This is especially true for the perishable things, like herbs and lettuce and spinach. I may buy some of that stuff, but then it has to be used right away, and I won't just have it on hand if I get the urge to make, say, tuna salad.

Not a hypothetical example.

You're green with envy, aren't you? Get it? GREEN? HAAA. Okay, sorry.

The day I was creating my bamboo masterpiece for the tomatoes, I was wandering around looking at the things growing in the garden. It occurred to me as I took note of the chives and chervil and dill and spinach that I had all the ingredients for really good tuna salad. So I gathered it all up, washed it, chopped it, and YUUUM. Now, the odds of me having this combination of things in my refrigerator from the store? Zero. But there it all was in the garden, just waiting to be harvested.

For me, happiness is a garden full of fresh herbs and vegetables.

What makes you happy, duckies?