Joys of Summer

We are all enjoying the welcome relief from the heat wave! The garden loved it, and with the day of a good soaking rain everything shot up 10 feet! Well, OK, maybe not 10 feet!

At dinner dishes Sr. Mary Jacinta said, "I ate 2 plums at meditation this morning! They were delicious! I'm going to pick more at recreation!" So, a group of sisters donned hats, Sr. Mary Magadene found the tallest ladder she could find and the eating, I mean, the picking, began in earnest!

Later, evening recreation was spent showing off each others growing project to each other.

This year the garden isn't that big but more sisters than usual decided to grow one or two things.

Sr. Mary Veronica has a beet patch, Sr. Maria Teresa loving cares for her basil which she is growing for pesto! Sr. Joseph Maria has her garden box with all sorts of vegetables. Sr. Mary Cecilia, Sr. Mary Jacinta and Sr. Mary Martin are growing tomatoes, beans and parsley. Sr. Mary Magdalene has a large squash and zucchini patch the fruits of which have even made itinto Fr. Gregory's morning homilies. Like anyone who grows zucchini, Sr. Mary Magdalene has found that no matter how much you give away or freeze there is still more! Sr. Mary Catharine nurtures the small vineyard and has a small garden of green and salmon colored zinnias and large white marigolds (supposedly!). As she is busy "growing" novices she doesn't have much time for much more than that and she tells us that, "I like to grow zinnias and marigolds."

"They're glorified weeds! You can count on them to grow, they produce lots of flowers that make people happy and the nice neatly weeded rows give me delusions of control!"

The vineyard is producing a small crop of grapes. Fortunately, it seems we have the black rot under control. What isn't under control are the birds who know just the right moment to eat every single grape.

Last year, Sr. Mary Catharine decided to wait one more day before harvesting. You guessed it! The next morning nary a grape was on the vines!

By the way, yes we know that the layout of this post is especially awful. If you have any tricks as to how the post you are producing can look the same as the published post please email us at vocation@summitdominicans.org. Thank you!