Only in dreams

Speckled romaine

The first radish

Today, at long last, the first salad from my own lettuce and radish. I feel a bit like a braggart, like one of those people who say: hey, look what I can do! But I think the astonishing thing was that I never really believed it was possible, that food could come from seeds in little packages, even though everyone keeps saying that it is. I was operating on complete faith.

I had to keep trying. It wasn't even that I didn't believe it was possible to grow things--my grandfather did it his whole life--but I didn't believe it was possible for me. So, as an exercise DVD I used to do says: consistency equals results. Try long and hard enough, and use all of the resources at your disposal, and eventually it'll happen.

A graduate professor of mine used to say that being a writer required three things:
1. Persistence.
2. Stick-to-it-tive-ness. (I know these are the same thing, more or less, but it's so important it requires two line items.)
3. Willingness to adapt and learn from one's own mistakes.

I have learned that the same thing is true of the garden.