My First Artichoke

Let me preface this post by first stating I do not enjoy gardening.  And, I do NOT have a green thumb.  When we moved into this house (our expensive postage stamp), it came with over forty rose bushes and a beautifully landscaped yard.  I had visions of joining the local garden club, and I planned to spend my free time weeding and planting new varieties of plants and flowers.  I attended a rose pruning class at the local garden center.  I bought a garden journal.  I pruned and weeded and planted and fertilized.  This new venture lasted exactly one year.  Now I leave the pruning, fertilizing, and weeding to my gardening service that comes every Thursday.  (Seriously, that's one thing I love about Southern California -- we don't even own a lawnmower!)

Since that time, I have managed to kill at least six rose bushes and the first blooms of this season seem to be covered with some sort of disgusting aphid rendering most of my first roses unsuitable for cutting and bringing in the house.  Last October I decided to venture into urban farming, so in a spot where several rose bushes had shriveled up and died and that already had an irrigation system, I decided to plant a winter vegetable garden

I went to the garden center and I picked out broccoli , cauliflower, three types of lettuce, snow peas and an artichoke.  We enjoyed all these homegrown treats during the winter.  And so today, I harvested my very first artichoke!!!  I can't wait to cook it! 

I still don't like to garden much, in fact in the vernacular of my 20 year old daughter I am an "epic failure" at it, but I think I am going to venture into summer vegetables this year since I can plant them now.  It is good to do something that actually produces concrete results.  (Preaching does not!)  Got any suggestions????  (When I figure out how to post photos, I'll do it.)

Because inquiring minds want to know. Probably not.

Because I am a pastor, I feel like I should be writing about important and meaningful spiritual insights here.  But if you remember from my last post, I don't do "shoulds" very well.  The problem is that I really don't have that many grand spiritual insights.  At least I don't think I do.  And the ones I do think I have aren't usually all that original, and they generally end up in a Sunday sermon.  I don't want this to be about sermon writing, sermon preparation, or sermon anything.  What I do want this to be is a place to share random thoughts on random subjects.  Hence, the title of my blog:  "The View From My Window."

I just happen to have a "million dollar" view from my office window.  If were to randomly poll the pastors in just my own denomination -- the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- I would wager that I have one of the top 25 best views from a church pastor's office window in the lower 48 states.  Now of course that is a matter of opinion, but I still think I do.  Trinity Church sits at the corner of Hastings Ranch Drive and Sierra Madre Blvd. in northeast Pasadena almost directly under Mt. Wilson, and I have a picture window over my desk with the most amazing view of the majestic San Gabriel Mountains. 

From my window I can watch hummingbirds feed on camelias, little lizards basking in the hot California sun, the neighborhood pair of cats - one black and one white - chasing critters in the churchyard, red-tailed falcons perching on telephone poles and soaring from tree to tree, ferral parrots screeching, and mourning doves cooing. (This morning a mourning dove decided that the top of my air conditioner would make a great place for a nest. -- they are pretty dumb birds.)  I have even seen an owl sitting in a tree and an albino squirrel.  

Looking out my window gives me a very different perspective on this crazy and wonderful world in which we live, and so, for those of you who wanted to know (all two of you), that's the reason for the title of this blog. 

 

So it begins with some random thoughts from a trip to Costco ...

I have been thinking for a long time that I should write a blog.  Everybody who is anybody seems to have one these days.  The problem is that anytime I think I "should" do something that is the exact thing I will resist doing.  For example, today I was thinking that I should go to the gym since I won't be able to go to my usual Thursday Zumba class for the next several weeks.  But instead of going to the gym, I procrastinated and picked up a book, and I ended up taking a nap instead.  I don't suppose I burned too many calories with that nap, but it sure did feel good! 

My excuses for being tired: a) I am recovering from the events surrounding my father-in-law's memorial service this past week; b) I went out for a delicious low calorie lunch with a good friend at noontime today; and c) I went to Costco this afternoon. I'm going to blame it on the trip to Costco.  I loathe the place but I needed toilet paper, and it irks me to pay over a dollar a roll for the stuff at my local supermarket.  At Costco I can buy 40 rolls of Kirkland brand for a mere $17.99 so I figure that buying toilet paper at Costco pays for the yearly membership. (Great justification, right?  One thing about me is that I can justify almost anything I decide I "need" to do.  Fortunately I have a fairly indulgent family.)

Have you ever noticed how strange people are when they are in Costco?  Everybody acts like they are starving.  Sometimes you can hardly turn your giant cart around the corner in the frozen food aisle because there are so many people lined up with their giant carts trying to gulp down the food the ladies with the ugly paper hats are doling out.  Today the ladies were giving out samples of orange chicken and some type of fried fish dipped in soy sauce.  YUCK.  Seriously, from the way people were pushing and shoving and blocking the aisle trying to grab for the food, you'd think some of these folk hadn't eaten since yesterday at breakfast. 

Another thing I hate about Costco is that you can't get out of the place without spending over a hundred dollars.  I always find things I "need" there.  Today I was really, really good.  But I resisted buying a cool set of acrylic glasses that I thought would be great to use on my back porch.  Things are such a good deal -- I "save" so much money there!!!!  Right. 

I did get one good bargain there today.  On my way home, I filled up my gas tank.  Costco gas was a mere $4.05 a gallon.  It was $4.19 this morning at my local "discount" gas station.  (I have to use premium in my car.)  I saved .14 cents a gallon -- a whole dollar and forty cents!!!! 

So I suppose I can also justify not going to the gym because I walked for at least a mile in that warehouse store today.  Not really, but it sure felt like it.   

And now I need to stop messing around with writing this blog, procrastinating preparing dinner, and go put a dollar into my "One Great Hour of Sharing" fish bank because when asked yesterday what I was giving up for Lent, I answered that I was going to try not to complain.  Yikes.  I think I just blew it big time!