There Is More Green

I am home and I am celebrating.  I drove 13 plus hours today.  I drove from New England to New Mexico, and then from New Mexico to New England, and I didn't hit one spot of stopped traffic until today, precisely one hour from Northampton.  A 20 minute bottle-neck just north of Hartford ("road work") was the only stopped traffic I saw across 56450 miles of road, or approximately 90 hours of driving work.  That's a fortnight of driving.  Anyway...I am home.  There is more green in my front garden than there is in the entirety of Northern New Mexico.

Naturally, you can't see the green here, in this photo, because it is dark, and green, in the dark, looks black.  What doesn't look black is my front door.  It looks how I remember it, but sweeter.  All summer long that door lead to pleasure and stress.  One small garden is simply not enough work for me.  Days go by and there's nothing really to do in the garden but fidget.  And then there's the strings of rain that last for days.  The garden is a charm and a snake, and my front door leads to it.  Hence the stress.  But today there is no stress.  The door has taken a chill pill.  

But it's not gonna be that chill tomorrow.  Tomorrow I am going to rip out the tomatoes and plant a lot of shallots and a good amount of garlic.  To celebrate.  I did just come home from a garlic farm. And on my last day on the farm, the farmer did tell me that I would get back to Massachusetts and see the climate and the land differently.  We were resetting a fence post. It was cold, still pretty early in the morning and in the shade.  About a week later, I did make it back to Massachusetts, around 11:00 P.M., and I was stunned by how big my zinnias had become.  I should leave more often.  I love driving fast.