Ouch

I decided yesterday that the sweet potatoes had to be dug up.  Lots of greenery around but they didn't seem to be going down into the ground. So I ripped and pulled and dug up all the beautiful little things.  There just the right size for roasting, just a quick wash and a scrub with a brush, a bit of oil and sprinkle a bit of seasoning on them, cook till crunchy on the outside and meltingly soft on the inner. Yum, theres only me likes them like that so I get to pig out.  There were a few big ones  and I suspect there a few more to dig out but it won't be me doing it.  I'll leave one plant in and it will soon take over again.  I found the ginger as well, i put the trowel through a piece of root and the pungent aroma came up out of the soil. I thought I'd lost it but closer inspection showed plenty of little knobs of new shoots, so I replanted it.  After digging yesterday I hadn't realised that I'd got the biggest blister I have ever had on the palm of my hand - from the supposedly cushioned handle of the trowel. I tried again this morning while it was still cool outside to turn over the soil but it was just too hard.  The mini tomatoes are next to go, the capsicums have a few fruit on that just need another week to get a bit bigger, keeping a close eye on them, the silverbeet is just about over. Garlic chives are ready for splitting and I noticed there are a few paw paw seedlings coming up. I've replanted two paw paws down the bottom of the garden and I might put these new ones down there as well. I've got tomato seedlings coming up all over the place, in the cracks in the paving, in plant pots, in the lawn.  I haven't bought a tomato plant for years, I just oick them out and bung em in a big pot.  The same with basil, i'm finding the little seedlings all over the place, so again they get put into a big pot. We use a lot of basil and I want to put more herbs in, I did have some coriander seeds somewhere.  I lost the oregano, it was wet for it and the parsely as well.  Somewhere I have chocolate mint and spearmint, I'll have to go sniffing around the garden for it. The Mother of All Herbs is just growing rampant, break a piece off, stick it in a pot and it takes straight away.  Even leaves that fall off take off. 
So today I ache all over, its a good ache though and while I feel guilty that I'm not doing anything at all today except bake a birthday brownie cake for my baby boy I'm going to force myself to do nothing. 
My baby turns 21 tomorrow.  He arrived after only a couple of hours in labour, two weeks overdue and facing the wrong way, the cord was round his neck and he wasn't breathing. Those few minutes when they tried to bring him back was the longest of our lives. I have never prayed so hard in all my life.  The following 24 hours were crucial, if he survived then the chances of him being severly disabled were high, on day two he had to have a blood transfusion, he had swelling on the brain and they had to drain it. He had tubes in and out of his poor little body I finally got to hold him on day three. He was on phenobarbitone to keep him asleep and I longed for him to open his eyes.  I kept myself busy, back and forth to the hospital, expressing milk not just for him but half the preemie baby ward.  A local taxi service ferried the milk to the hospital free of charge when we couldn't make it in.  He never cried, just a strange high pitched squeell, he grunted when he was touched as they reduced the pheno'b he was like a addict going cold turkey.  Finally I was allowed to try and feed him myself, he latched on, opening his eyes for the first time, squinting into the light, at last we were able to introduce ourselves.  We were allowed to bring him home when he was 3 weeks old, there were months of therapy and tests ahead of us. He was a bright happy baby, a little slow to reach the milestones but by two he had caught up.  He was slow to talk but he is a man of few words anyway, he's turned into a wonderful young man as all my boys have, kind, generous, warm hearted, helpful, funny, hard working.  At 13 he had his own lawn mowing business, he left school early, he might not be academic but he knows what he wants and he goes after it. He's a dare-devil, loves his offroad motorbiking, he's full of scars from accidents.  He hates fuss - especially his mother fussing over him, he didn't want anything special doing for his birthday. We're not a family big on parties and making a fuss anyway. I'm just happy to get all my sons all grown up and happy.  His 18th was overshadowed by his dads death a few weeks before. I'm sure wherever Mik is he'll be toasting his boys.  They'll always be the boys, ma coyles boys.