my week in the garden
inspired by Erin Boyle's Tea Notes
Welcome to Pocketful of Prose, a community for sharing stories. As always links are in bold, and there’s an audio of this post if that works better for your life.
Today, I’m trying something new. For creatives, it’s good to dabble in something different sometimes. Last week, after reading the Isolation Journals, I had my adult memoir class all draw their right foot and then write about it. Imagine a room full of adults taking their socks off and then staring at their feet for ten minutes. It was amazing. I will spare you my drawing, but today I hope to bring you that same energy, an encouragement to try something different, something a little outside your norm. Today’s pocket is inspired by Erin Boyle who writes Tea Notes and whose new book Making Things came out last week. My friend Andrea shared Erin’s Tea Notes with me. I don’t know how it works for you, but my best reads are usually found through friends, which is why this month I have a special ask of you. Please share this pocket or your favorite Pocketful of Prose with a friend today. Then, let me know in the comments. For the next six weeks, every time you share Pocketful of Prose, I will put your name in a hat. At the end of June, I will pull a few names out of the hat, and I will raffle off some special Pocketful of Prose seeds (US only).
In Tea Notes, Erin zooms in on her week through five objects. She shares a photo of each object and sometimes pairs that photo with a short musing. Her posts serve as gentle reminders to pay attention to beauty and delight and that less is often more.
As Oscar Wilde once said, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” Here is my week in the garden.
1. This old rhubarb
for being worthy of the state fair
2. These alliums
and the friend who gave them to me
3. This Bishop’s Weed
for its tenacity and reminder of best laid plans
4. This solar fountain pump that still works
despite the neighborhood cats having a go at it (Notice the claw marks)
5. This basil which is happily living inside
until the weather warms
More on the joy of solar fountains
I would love to continue this conversation in the comments. What did you make this week? What are you paying attention to? What is bringing you delight?
My creative endeavors recently all revolved around garden zucchini: zucchini muffins, zucchini chocolate cake, and zucchini feta pancakes, stuffed zucchini plus grilled zucchini, sautéed zucchini (which my two pups love as well)—yum!
The Rhubarb, allums, and bishop weed are especially inspirational to me! Will a the pocket on Transformative Power of Blackout Poetry on my Instagram story tomorrow! :)