Party in a Garden

My mother is one of those ladies with a lot of hobbies. She also refuses to throw anything in the garbage and insists that she can make anything as good or better than you can buy at the store. Trying to explain to her, as a child, why I wanted store-bought Pop Tarts instead of homemade healthy pastries was a constant struggle. Among her many hobbies: raising goats, keeping bees, gardening. My mother has a garden. It's full of vegetables, of course. Then there is obviously the berry patch and an orchard which are full of berries and fruit, respectively. Luckily, our home owners association won't let us have chickens...

Swiss Chards from our garden

One of the greatest things about the garden is that my mother keeps it all year long. Don't ask me how she does it. It must be some sort of magic! She does it some how and this year, we had fresh vegetables all winter. I ate a lot of carrots, beets and greens this winter, fresh from the garden! Even some of the herbs powered through this winter's triple-snow. These swiss chards are some of the plants that made it all year long. Not only are they one of the best things you can put into your body, they come in the best colors!

I took this silly photo when I was getting a photo of the pretty plants. I always love to see disheveled self-photos of people, where they dramatically look away from the camera. My dreads have been the craziest lately. They are pretty tame here, but sometimes they just go haywire. Unfortunately, you can hardly see my clothes in this. I promise, I was fully clothed.