Happily conflicted. . .

Stan's sister, Sosie, and her husband, Bill, left for Africa today where they will spend three weeks in such exotic locales as South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Up until now, Sosie has been busy in her northern California garden surrounding their canyon home, some of it shown in the photo above. What about all your plants while you are away, an associate asked? Here's Sosie's instructive response:
Gardening and traveling are incompatible interests. The view out our dining room window was the best ever this morning. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of yellow daffodils across the entire back yard to greet the spring.
But if a daffodil is to bloom again next year, it needs to have its bloom removed shortly after flopping off. Which is when we will be long gone. During a short break in the rain today, neighbor Ann and I drove downtown to take down my frost cloths from my vegetable raised beds, harvest enough incredibly perfect lettuce to feed the end of the canyon, and then return home to deadhead my daffodils at their prime. We delivered huge bags of daffodils to the neighbors. Uffda. Spring next year will be all the more glorious for our frantic efforts. If we are home.

Now all the yellow of spring is gone and we are off to the other side of the equator where it is fall. Does that sound like a complaint? I hope not. That would be really, really dumb. How could one complain about leaving somewhere you want to garden to go to somewhere you want to travel?
Happily conflicted,
Solveig