Sunday’s weather is perfect. Perfect. No rain, just 82F/27C (just below my favorite temperature, I like it hot), sunny, slightly windy, with trees just starting to turn colors.

VanAtta’s Greenhouse is wonderful, I can not believe I’ve never gone there before. I’m not a big gardener and that kept me from driving across town, though I knew about their great reputation.

I do love having fresh herbs in the back yard, and I have had good luck with growing Swiss Chard (no luck with spinach for some reason, maybe because I don’t plant early enough). I prefer buying plants over seeds, they are more certain to make it and a lot less trouble. I just have not had much luck finding herbs at the Lansing spots I’ve tried. You should have SEEN the basil and parsley they had today. I know where I am going for my herbs next spring.

Next year we plan to expand our “food garden” (which this year had one Swiss Chard plant, some dill, cilantro and parsley). I have grown carrots before and may do that again. I want to grow more herbs next year.

Our soil is not good at all, and that discourages me when I try new things. We have a compost pile just because it’s the good way to get rid of vegetable scraps, but we don’t use it up much because we don’t really garden. I figure right before the snow comes, I’ll put a bit of compost on next year’s garden area and hope it gets used to its new home. We can put more on there in the spring when we plant.

The RicStar Music Camp benefit was a lot of fun. We got there just as Jen Sygit was starting her set, so I sat and took a bunch of photos of her, Drew and Matt. Next we were on and Jen took photos of us. Here are a few of those photos from today.

I tell you, I just love being part of the music community here in Lansing. At one point we played Epley Breakdown (an instrumental Brian wrote, that is oft-requested by musicians, particularly Drew) and Drew did an impromptu dance for a second. It made me smile. This is the authentic-friend thing going on. I am so honored and happy to be part of it all. You can hear the Epley Breakdown in MP3 format by clicking here.
Some music communities are not so warm and welcoming as the one in Lansing. We’re a relatively new act on the block, we have maybe been doing this seriously as a duo for about 5 years. It is great to really feel included in something that preceded us.

Well, the sun is still up and warm. I have work to do (writing the text to explain the ZigBagZ pattern so that Karen can start to test it). But while it’s this beautiful I will take myself on a walk around the neighborhood. May you have as nice a day as I am having.