Not the usual 9 to 5.

Ah. Labor Day Weekend, and I'm officially off "work" until next Thursday. I'm still working, mind, just not at the greenhouses! I did do the busman's holiday thing today - I was supposed to be off, but we started a huge sale this morning, and no one had made signs with the prices. "If it's to be, it's up to me". So, I got out all my lovely rainbow of Sharpie markers and stayed up till about 1am last night, making the signs. Went in today to drop them off, and wound up helping customers and watering a greenhouse. Off the clock. Am I nuts? You tell me!

But it was a lovely morning. I like talking to people about plants. I like watering the herb greenhouse. I even like playing with markers after midnight. It wasn't too hot (yet), and I felt needed. When I was heading out the driveway for home, though, I got stuck in a reeaallly slow-moving traffic jam. HONK HONK HONK - Canada geese. Walking. Slowly. Single file. I counted twenty-two of them. And then, in one slow, gradual, graceful wave, they just lifted up over the front field and over Mrs. Margaret's house - back toward the lake, more than likely.

It's been ten years at the greenhouses, but I still see a little happening like that as a gift for the day. Wild geese. Hawks. Herons. Deer and skunks and coyote and a little groundhog now and then. Big orb weaver spiders in unexpected places, barn swallows in the rafters overhead, and the mockingbird that sings himself silly from the highest points he can find. The flock of goldfinches on the echinacea in the herb garden. Praying mantis everywhere right now. All of these creatures make the day for me, and I hope I never lose my wonder at encountering (and sometimes working right alongside) them.

Nine to five, indeed. Do I really want to be off till next Thursday?

You want some WHINE to go with that?

Whew. Wait a minute - it was just July! Where did it go??? And August????

Seems I was schlepping along, doing all my usual stuff, and then a few things started hitting the calendar - and a few more - and all of a sudden I'm in Fully Frozen Procrastination Mode! I have so much to do that I’m overwhelmed. I don't want to work on anything, I don't want to talk to anyone, I just want to disappear and be quiet. I don’t feel like I have “permission” to work on things like housework or garden, since there’s so much else hanging fire. So, I freeze and do nothing. There's probably some sort of official Syndrome for that, but I'm just going to label it FFPM and let it go.

Since onset, I've gotten a couple of major tasks done - teaching a class at Campbell's Gourmet Cottage and updating the greenhouses' e-mail list for this week's big annual sale. These things had deadlines. That helps.

But there's a whole lot left to go. Two more Campbell's classes between here and November 1st, several working weekends at the greenhouses, the annual art show at the studio where I take lessons, and - oh, yes - craft show season. Stresstresstresstresstress. Plus, there's vacation - a long weekend in Gatlinburg, PLUS a week in October at Lake Barkley. aaaaaaaaaaaaggghhh. (I know vacations are supposed to be relaxing, but it's getting there. And it's craft show season.) Plus keeping the Finch House running. Plus the house. Plus the garden.

Hm. Now that I'm whining in print, maybe it really doesn't look that bad. IF I'll get busy. IF I get on it. And that's where FFPM comes in. I think it's related to writer's block (which I encountered in serious form in college)... the more there is to jump on, the more I want to just sit and contemplate the universe. Play solitaire. Dust under the piano. Count the pages of paper in the printer cassette. You know - really useful stuff.

Which reminds me - I'm supposed to be at the grocery right now, NOT blogging. Even if I am a month behind on it. SO, how bout we label this one a "WHINE" and leave it at that! Hopefully I'll have something a little more interesting to add later...