Gone with the wind ... and the rain

I've never seen My Favorite Year, so I'll be blogging GWTW, I guess. And this year, in my garden, it's not GWTW but GWTW: Gone with the Water.

Poor Iowa has suffered, like all places, from climate shifts, many of them (it seems like), in one week. Last year we had a wet spring then a mini-drought. The year before that was a flat-out drought. In 2008, there was massive flooding.

This year there's a good deal of rain. I did some major landscaping in 2012 and the garden is finally maturing. But with that comes what we didn't anticipate. We installed the garden in a drought year. Now that we're finally getting rain (sometimes a real gully-washer, as we say in these parts), parts of the garden are more like rivers. In particular, I have massive stone steps installed. The water appears to be running from the often-clogged drainage area (clogged with pollen and tree debris) onto the steps, which then become a waterfall.

Once the ground cover fills in around the steps, it will be fine, but we had a terrible winter last year and plants are coming in late. This picture shows that -- this is a June picture, and it looks more like early May. Usually by June, it's ALL green with splotches of color.

I've gone through several bags of mulch already this year, trying to keep dirt from washing away, but I think other measures will be required. So today, it's off to the garden center for a load of river rock to put around the steps and on the landing areas. It's not quite the look I wanted, but it beats hauling 50 pound bags of mulch around (yes, I do that on a regular basis).

Gardening always reminds me of the writing process. You think you have a book all plotted out, and BAM, something comes along and it takes a right turn (in my case, it becomes a waterfall). There's nothing you can do except be flexible and turn with it.

I had to do that with my latest release, out now from The Wild Rose Press. It's a past/present story and it took a LOT of rewriting to get it pared down to an acceptable size.I had to stay as flexible as a pretzel when it came to editing that one!

Back to the garden for some more work before it heats up for the day. We have a narrow window of opportunity here to enjoy the outdoors, so I'm taking advantage of it!

Learning to love what you hate

Well, maybe not *love*, but learn to accept what you, okay, maybe don't *hate*, but what bugs you.

It's wintertime and I live in the Midwest. Need I say more? Snow up to HERE and so cold it's deadly. I hear so many people complain about the weather. "I hate the snow." "It's too cold to do anything." "I hate it when it gets so slippery."

You know--you live in the Midwest. It's going to snow, it's going to be cold, and it's going to be slippery. You don't have to love it but at least accept it. Remember, it only temporary. Very soon it will be all green and growing, then it will be too HOT to be outside and too HUMID to do anything fun, and ... You get the idea.

We can't change the weather. All we can do is try to put on a good weather attitude about it. There are so many things we can't change that upset us: religious dogma, world politics, illness or death. I try hard to ignore those things that trip my anger button and I try to let mainly positive vibes into my day. It's fine to get angry and DO something, but don't just be angry to no purpose.

And if you don't like the weather, you can move. It may seem insurmountable to find a job somewhere else, uproot your family, and do it, but trust me, it can be done. I've done it 28 times in my life and several of those moves were across country.

Just face it with the right attitude, and you'll be amazed what a difference it makes in your day.

J L
(new book! Resorts is out on Amazon! Check it out ☺It's a summer book. It will make you feel all warm and cozy!)