Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Red Oak House Garden Notes No. 31

Jim took a break Saturday from fishing and hunting in order to work on his garlic bed. He also cultivated an area in the vegetable garden for me. Now that we have a chicken-wire fence around the vegetable garden, I can plant tulips and the rascally rabbits won’t gnaw them down to nubs.

I planted 80 bulbs — yellow and red — and they will be bright spots next spring when most of the plants are just getting started. It was a windy fall day, but the sun was shining. While we worked, we could hear the loudspeaker from the Bismarck State College Bowl and the people cheering on their football and soccer teams.

On Friday, I picked more than a quart of our fall raspberries, and we delivered some to my mother.

Indoors, the folding table is full of green tomatoes, ripening in the sun from the dining room windows.

From now on, we’ll both be tracking in lots of leaf debris when we go in and out the doors.

Our next-door neighbors’ tree has left a lovely carpet on their lawn this morning.

Across the street from us at Tom O’Leary Golf Course, a couple of young guys were getting in some of the last days on the links before the season ends. The colors in the trees there are just starting to turn, I think because these trees get so much water.

Friday night, I attended the local Unitarian Universalist’s Gandhi Peace Indian Dinner, with the tastiest (and spicy) feast prepared by my friends, Aruna and Vinod Seth, and I resolved to make this an annual event.

When we were both ready to quit for the day, we wandered over to Barnes & Noble, where John Bluemle was signing his book “North Dakota’s Geologic Legacy.” Good book, great gentleman, one of ND’s treasures.

Then, we took a walk through the Food Truck Festival for a late lunch, passing by the Bismarck Community Garden, where the zinnias are lovely.

The variety of food and creativity of vendors was fun to see. Yummy.

I indulged in potato dumplings from The Czech Wagon, and we both bought Mud Pie ice cream from Hot Cookie Mama. We live in a great city, and life is good.

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I bet they’d live a lot differently. When you look into infinity, you realize there are more important things than what people do all day.”Bill Watterson





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