Great Saturday Retreat

Today is Great Saturday or Holy Saturday, the day between Jesus' death and his resurrection. In the Church, it's celebrated with watchful expectation and funeral hymns. I'm celebrating it with a morning retreat, for reading, writing, and working in the garden!

Agenda Today: 

1. Read The Purpose Principles

2. "What You Want" Exercise 

3. Planting and permaculture

1. Read The Purpose Principles:

This is the second time I've started this book, written by Jake Ducey, but I didn't get very far last time. Chapter 1 is Seeing Without Eyes.

He begins by talking about visionaries like Lincoln, Gandhi, and MLK - people who knew what they wanted to do, and did it.

"There's nothing mystical about it. Every great person knew first what he or she wanted, and then achieved it through hard work". Then he writes about taking the first step in living the life you want, which is to create the terms of your life. "You must have a dream, a direction".

2. "What You Want" Exercise:

This exercise comes from Jake Ducey's book, the Purpose Principles:

What do you want? 

What makes you feel like yourself?

What would have to happen in the next year for you to look back and say that it was your most successful and fulfilling year yet? 

Time travel in your mind one year in the future, feel what it would be like to live this dream, and write a definition of "what you want" in a couple of sentences.

Journal: My life as a grandma seems to have some pretty solid bumpers, with not a lot of flexibility, but some of the bumpers are self-imposed by low-energy and a desire for relaxation. If all the bumpers were removed, the thing I'd do this year is write a book / blog and / or host a podcast that gave guidance to people on how to be a creative force for change, and in the process, create some change in my world.

3. Planting and permaculture:

I'm so far behind in planting this year that I'm afraid I may not have much of a garden. But the rain will abate for one entire day, and I will get as caught up as my energy allows.

Kale is a cool-season leafy vegetable from the Brassicaceae (mustard) family along with cabbage and broccoli. (Don't plant kale with other members of the mustard family, or pests will have an easy time jumping.) Kale is a native to Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean, and the Greeks were growing several varieties by the 4th century BCE. It's best to plant kale in either early spring or late summer, however, late summer plantings produce higher quality, because kale is enhanced with a light frost and can continue to grow even after a light freeze. Some good companion plants for kale are: Beets, onions, spinach, and lettuce.

I've got 6 kale plants in already, but today I'll add 2 purple kale plants that my son gave me weeks ago - I hope they will survive the neglect! I'm going to plant the last of my onion seedlings in amongst the kale (these have also been sitting around for weeks...)

Beets can be followed all the way back to c. 2600 BCE at sites in Egypt, and Greek writing shows beet cultivation occurring later in Mesopotamia. Beets reside within the Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot) family. They like cool weather, so it’s best to plant them in early spring, but not until the temperature of the soil is at least 40ºF. They also grow well in the cooler temperatures of fall. Beets do best in deep, well-drained soil; clay soil should be mixed with organic matter to help soften it. Plant the seeds 1 - 2 inches apart in a row, cover lightly with loose soil, and then sprinkle with water. You should see the plants sprouting in 7 to 14 days. If you want a continuous supply, plant several plantings, about three weeks apart from each other. Plant beets with onions and garlic, or try under-sowing your beets with a green manure of oats (growing your beets with oats can help reduce damage caused by the sugar beetroot maggot), but do not plant beets with pole beans, because the excess nitrogen will create beets with a large top and a little beetroot. 

Today I'm going to add compost to bed near my onions, and plant about 20 seeds, leaving room for a second sowing in 3 weeks.

Peas: It's almost too late to plant peas in my valley, but my early plantings didn't come up, so I'm going to go for it and plant them all now.