Greetings, my fellow port swillers!

You know, the women-folk of Port Swiller Manor have long professed to be great fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the spirit with which she faced frontier life.  Yet let ol’ Robbo absent-mindedly forget to turn the heat back on after a cold front comes through, making the house perhaps a tad chilly overnight, and see what kind of reaction he gets.  Hot house orchids ain’t in it.

Speaking of flowers, I was musing about what needs doing around the grounds after I get home from Mass today.  It’s actually a short and sweet list:  The annual stringing of new deer netting for the hydrangea hedge, the placement of supports for the peonies, some weeding on the garden path.

Somewhere or other I have seen an illustrated Examination of Conscience.  For the Commandment about keeping the Sabbath, one of the pictures is of somebody sweating over an old-fashioned push-mower.  Now I personally feel that mowing the lawn does come under the definition of unnecessary Sunday labor, which is why I always try to take care of it on Saturday.    But I don’t classify fooling about in the garden the same way.  To me, it’s more a sort of hands-on appreciation of God’s glory.  (At least until the weather turns beastly hot.)

UPDATE:  Speaking of Flower Power:  Legalized weed, “Earth Day” counterculture and Colorado hippie pot-heads. What could possibly go wrong?

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