Celebrate in Darkness
It’s Palm Sunday this week. I remember fondly my mom sewing new dresses for all of us four sisters. For in Lebanon, we wore our Easter finery on Palm Sunday (Shaynini) as well as Easter. We paraded down our block along with other bedecked families streaming out of their apartments on their way to their places of worship, waving palm branches and carrying aloft their floral decorated candles. In our neighborhood, these places of Christian worship included Maronite Catholic, Syriac, Roman Catholic, and Baptist Churches.
Kabob Marinade
The weather is gorgeous! Fingers crossed that the last freeze has come and gone. So, I’m itching to fire up the grill and enjoy alfresco dining.
April Showers Bring May Flowers
As a gardener, I can have the top of the line sprinkler system, and supplement with tender loving hand watering, but both my baby seedlings and mature plants react the same to a rain shower. They reach up and out in their eagerness to grow: shooting out tendrils, putting on more leaves, and prolifically popping out buds.
Spring Fuss and Muss
Spring cleaning is all the rage this month. We’re tired of winter clutter and ready for spring freshness. A purge revolution is currently sweeping our country. Who would’ve thought that a “cleaning out stuff” book would be a best seller?
Do I Expect Answers?
That glazed over the eye, the foggy detached look are tell-tale signs that your conversations partner was just being perfunctory when he/she asked, “How are you doing?” And you, mistaking sincerity, answered the question.
Weeds, Weeds, Go Away!
Talking about weeds isn’t the most engrossing topic of gardening conversation, but it is oh so necessary! For a pesticide free yard, it’s pretty straight forward: smother and knock out the germinating seeds when they first nestle into your lawn in the fall, or yank them up from the roots when they emerge in the spring.
Am I Blooming?
It’s the closing bell of winter and I’m watching the changes in the plum tree out my study window. Each day, a few more puffs of white blossoms appear transforming one bloom into clusters of sweet smelling flowers clinging to bare branches.
Hummus, the More you Eat, the More You Want!
More than any other recipe, hummus is the one for which people ask me the most. Hummus has recently become massively popular outside the Middle East, especially in the United States and Europe. I routinely see hummus packaged and ready to eat in all shapes and forms in the grocery aisles, even as little snack packs.
Promises Kept
In this season of Lent, we’re focusing on the stewardship of pain. This descriptive phrase in itself is anathema to what society teaches us. We’re indoctrinated to avoid, silence, ignore, and medicate pain. How about walking through it? Is that too extraordinary of a thought?
Reduce Garden Fever; Tend a Houseplant
What?!?!?! Have we really just persevered through three consecutive days of twenty-degree weather in Texas? We beat our own low temperatures for March according to our local weatherman. So much for my snapdragons coming into their own and the columbine buds just getting ready to bloom. I sure do hope these next few days of warmer weather, sunshine spurts, and spring rains keep these favorite early spring flowers of mine alive, much less healthy. In these conditions, I can really see the benefits of mulching thoroughly over the winter!