A rather warm day here in Michigan today. I spent some time this morning getting the vegetable garden tilled. I thanked Clint for getting the tiller fixed; it's surely making my job easier. I am able to keep the vegetable garden so much cleaner with its help.

I planted three more tomatoes to make up for the ones that appear to be frost-bitten. In some of my work around the barn last week I found some old seeds that were given to me by a gentleman that came to our church a few years ago. He is now gone home to be with the Lord, but he was a pure delight to have in our church family. He was saved at about age 85 or so and Clint and the elders baptized him in Perrin Lake! He drove several miles to get to our church and was never late, actually arriving early for Sunday School each Sunday. I found that to be amazing. With all that distance to come, he showed up many of us who have a hard time making it to church on time when we are only a few miles away! His dedication was amazing. He gave me packet after packet of heirloom bean seeds to plant. For several years I planted them and tried to carefully mark them, saving some each planting for next year's crop. It's a lot of work to get into heirloom seed-saving. I admired him even more after I tried to do it! I decided to plant some of them again this year. I am running out of the originals that he gave me and so I have to be very careful to save them this fall when the crop is done. So, before quitting on the vegetable garden for the day, I planted a row of the seeds he gave me.

I noticed the strawberries are only days from ripening. It will be a treat to have fresh berries again after the long winter.

Later in the afternoon I worked in the English Garden. I was amazed at how many weeds had popped up just since yesterday. I had most of the garden weeded and looking pretty good. I watered and that really gave the weeds a boost. I spent quite a while out there in the sun weeding today. It's really looking good. I spread the last of the cocoa mulch. Some critter was eating it right from the bag. I hadn't opened the bag yet, but let it lay in the grass behind the garden. Something ate two holes in it and scattered some little bits of the mulch. I thought I better get the rest of it in place today.

Early this evening it began to rain. We are experiencing a nice steady, gentle rain. Just perfect for gardens. It's a soft rain and that's just right. This will really give all my seeds a boost. In the last few days I've planted the tomatoes, beans, nicotania (flowers), bachelor's buttons, zinnias, morning glories, and cleome seeds. Most of my green beans are up as well as potatoes and onions. It's amazing how fast stuff grows once it pops up and warm days mixed with the right amount of rain occur.

In the last few days I've been reading in 1 Corinthians. Today's reading was chapter 13, the famous love chapter. It struck me once again that I have a long way to go to arrive at being a "loving" person. I noticed at some time in the past I had penciled notes in around the chapter indicating that you can check your self on whether or not you behave in love by simply asking the descriptions of love in the form of questions. For instance the one that really hit me today was, "...is not easily provoked." Am I easily provoked? I had to answer, 'yes; much of the time.' There. Now I know when I do that I'm not acting in love. Then there's plenty more to check as well. "Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;" do I rejoice in truth? "Love suffers long and is kind..." do I suffer long; am I patient; am I kind while being patient or am I just enduring with clenched teeth? Ouch. Well, you get the idea. This chapter is a classic example of a scripture that is so familiar that we tend to overlook it because we nearly have it memorized. We hear it read at almost every wedding we've ever been to. But upon careful examination, we can really dig into it and get some deep truths to challenge our lives.

I got to knit a little bit this evening. After all, it's raining and you can't work outside all evening like most summer evenings. Seemed good to get back to a waiting project. I hope to post more thoughts on love tomorrow as well as some pictures if I can get my act together. Blessings, LORI