Beginning at the End -- The 2025 Growing Season

In thinking back over the 2025 Growing Season, let me fast-forward to the end, and say that the yard and garden, the raised beds and community garden plot at Los Ranchos Agri-Nature Center, and Bill Shen and all my new Master Gardener friends saved me from a personal tailspin.  And instead, gave me one of the most rewarding, delightful, soul- and mind-expanding seasons of my life to date.

When I retired in mid-February, everyone expected me to be giddy.  And I wasn't.  I had a terrible, stubborn case of the blues.  To be honest, my "career" was a dud.  I felt like I was a failure, in many respects.  I didn't end my work life on a high point so much as doggedly run out the clock and slink away.  When people asked (and they DID, a lot!) I started forcing myself to smile politely and say, "I am grateful, just not joyous."

So, as I said, the natural world, and lots of new dirt-digging folks helped me make it through a scary, rough patch in a miraculous way. I am profoundly grateful.

And now to tackle all the stuff that happened!
The Olympics got nothin' on Gardening: "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!"

The two tiny cucumber plants that took over the world.
15 July 2025