Garden, shoes, and the wardrobe

We've put in a great garden this year.  I hope the plants thrive and produce for us.  We have put in several kinds of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, kale, carrots, lettuce, basil, parsley, chives, and rosemary.  This year, more than others, I have felt a connection with my relatives through the plants.  I have gardeners on all sides of the family and as I was planting, I was thinking about them.  I remember Grammy Louise's garden in Vernon.  Dad always has beautiful tomatoes.  Robert gave me the kale plants that he started from seeds.  Heather took the torch and made me realize that it wasn't just for our parents.  Mom is all about fresh herbs and flowers. How many times would we run down the porch stairs to the garden to pick fresh chives to sprinkle on tacos or snip some parsley for the salad?  I enjoy seeing the pictures and hearing the gardening stories from others.  My family gardens and I love it.

Two weekends ago Selim and I bought seeds and plants from a nursery in Dover.  While we didn't plant everything all in one day, eventually, we got them all in.  After just a week or so in the ground, I think the tomato plants are sturdier and the peppers are taller.

The raised beds, prior to weeding and planting.

This year I dug out some of the lemon verbena that had spread along the retaining wall and put in herbs and a kale.

Next year we will reclaim the former strawberry patch and incorporate it into the regular garden.

I hope we have better luck with the carrots this year.  I put them in a different raised bed and added compost from our bin.  Maybe that will help.

And now to the shoes.  I bought these on sale during the Memorial Day weekend.

Fabulous, right?  I didn't know when I would wear them, but I "had" to have them.  Yesterday, I had the perfect opportunity.  I were co-facilitated the monthly Adjudication training.  I had a vested interest in the success of the training since I came up with the theme, had the vision for how it should be presented, researched the material, set the schedule so that we could meet the deadline, and got the buy in from my co-workers and Manager. Then I turned it over to David so that he could work his magic and create the actual technical presentation.  He did a great job.  On Tuesday we had three training sessions, two for first shift and one for second and I wanted to look professional and be comfortable at the same time.  The shoes were the perfect compliment to my favorite sleeveless suit-type dress.  (It wasn't wrinkled yesterday.)

The first session started at 10:30.  By 10:20 I had gotten several compliments on my outfit as people came into the room and that made me smile.  I was confident in front of the microphone and even though the first group wasn't very energetic to start, I didn't let that get to me.  By the end, they were into it and we had the give and take that makes a training session interesting and gratifying.  The last session of the day was the easiest.  We had our second shift group and everybody was more relaxed.  They were fun and we had a great time.

When I got back to my office, one of my former team mates came up to me and said, "I saw you up there and I thought to myself, Bethany is still all about the shoes."  I laughed.  And it is true.

I am grateful that I have a wardrobe that works in a professional setting and for the gathering that I went to on Sunday.  I have a collection of dresses that can be worn with strappy sandals or heals; can be dressed up with a suit jacket or made more casual with a little sweater.  It is nice to have a collection of outfits that if I have to travel for work, or attend a gathering with a social set out of my league, that I can feel comfortable in what I am wearing.