Garden Thoughts, Joan Ashby & Solitary Intelligence

I know I'm just now closing my garden down for the winter months, but my mind is already looking toward spring. This is a sign that you're a true gardener at heart.

The first garden catalog I have received so far...

I still had green tomatoes on my tomato plant when we had a light freeze here. I truly enjoyed my fresh patio tomatoes. And I still have chives.

I am already thinking about color combos for flowers and what perennials I want to add and what annuals I want to repeat. 
 
I really loved the black petunias I had this past season. They were so pretty and looked like velvet. They were the perfect backdrop for the more pastel lavender petunias. 

I don't think I'd tried the frilly style of petunias before, as you see below. But I really loved the look. Reminds me of old-fashioned petticoat layers.

I always have daisies. They've been my favorite flower since childhood. 

I have some perennial daisies I planted this past year, so I'm hoping they will come back up in the containers. I left so many of those behind in Texas six years ago.

What I'm Reading...

 
"The Resurrection Of Joan Ashby" spans the years when Joan Ashby gets married through the young adulthood of her sons.

Joan Ashby had begun a stellar career as a writer of short stories, winning awards in her early twenties, and had not planned on getting married or having children.

But she meets a charming doctor who captures her heart. And then she finds herself having her first child, though she really never wanted to have children. 

The first part of the book focuses on her doubts and reservations about motherhood. She embraced motherhood, but still missed her old life. 

What I find exceptional about this book is that Joan Ashby makes no apologies about not wanting to have children. 

Though she truly enjoyed and loved her sons, still she could hardly wait until they were grown so she could resume the "writerly" life.

I found this rather refreshing. Too often women are looked down on as being selfish if they don't want to be mothers.

Yet motherhood does not have to be the focus of every woman's life. Men who don't want children are treated differently. It is rationalized that they are just focusing on their career and don't have the time.

Women get kicked in the butt about a lot of things. 
 
Food For Thought Tidbit...

If you worry or loved ones worry that you are alone too much, here's something that might make you (and them) feel better.

Studies show that your need to be alone might just be a sign of your intelligence. This article might make you feel better about your solitary inclinations.