It's Official

You might remember me saying one of my goals for 2013 was to complete my environmental educators certification.  And I did, actually back at the beginning of March, I finally finished, that means I completed 200 hours of classes, teaching and community service projects and finally, today, my documents arrived in the mail.  I'm kinda tickled about getting this done after 4 years of working on it, not sure what it will do for me exactly, but the experience did give me lots of great ideas for teaching EE and the opportunity to meet  many interesting and dedicated folks in the EE field. And there is that sense of accomplishment which isn't a bad thing when you're scattered in as many directions as I often am.

Some other highlights of the week:

• Baby bluebirds continue to chatter in the nest, I expect to see them fledge any day now
• Peas are blooming and there are tiny pods forming
• Peonies are in full bloom as a result of the high temperatures that finally came BOOM, from 70 on Tuesday to 90 today.
• Potatoes are blooming which means taters are forming under ground 
• Strawberries are coming in ripe and sweet
• And finally, another thing that's official.  I removed the last vestiges of the community garden from the Duke Energy site on James Street, a sad scene for me to see it end, but also, it was time and I'm very glad to be done with that project which was hard emotionally and physically.  Now I can concentrate 100% on the one community garden I am still managing. 

You know I can't help gushing about the peonies, so here are a couple of reasons why:

• the flowers and foliage are large and lush
• the petals are silky
• the fragrance can be spectacular; ginger, rose and citrus, all rolled into one
• the colors and flower variations are many

Gaze upon these and be a believer

Looks like a horseshoe wreath of flowers

Bowl of Beauty

Need I say more?  I wish you a good night!