Chicken Soup
When I got home yesterday, I learned that Kim has happened upon some sort of cold virus during the week. She made it through this morning for the departure of her sister and nephew, but then she crashed and crashed hard. She went back to bed before 10am and basically spent the day there recuperating with Betty by her side, snoozing away. Meanwhile I spent my morning doing and errand or two and then gardening. I noticed that all of the Haworth’s Aeonium along the upper driveway was sprouting seed stems all over the place. The thing about succulents is that they grow so easily that they tend to get out of control and just keep growing unchecked. The Haworth’s Aeonium is already pretty expansive on that upper hillside and I really don’t want to see it go crazy. Succulents get “leggy” when they get too much water and this spring and early summer season has been mighty wet. In essence, they need to be pruned aggressively. The rest of the plant will carry on just fine despite the pruning and with any luck you can control its growth the way you want.
So, I spent several hours cutting and bucketing all the seed stems I could see on either side of the driveway. What I couldn’t reach by hand, I used the extending tree trimmer to cut. I filled three large buckets and wore myself out. Tomorrow I will attack the seed stems on the back hillside since there are several aeonium plants that are also getting out of control. Everything on the back hillside is flourishing and getting bigger than I had planned them to get. I’m not altogether sure which plants I should and should not cut back hard, like they seem to need. I’m guessing I wil default on risking the plant by cutting it back too much rather than risk letting it get out of control more than it is already. With this continuing wet weather, I’m just not so sure when all this growth is likely to end.
What I like most about gardening besides the results and all the flowers, is that I can start and stop my futzing whenever I want. Doing something today versus tomorrow makes little difference, so nothing feels like procrastination. I do what I feel up to doing and leave the rest for tomorrow. One of the funny things that happened to me while working in the garden is that I sort of forget about eating, which is just as well on a day when Kim isn’t feeling well. Later in the day, I started to wonder what we would do for dinner and I just assumed that I would have to order in something for the both of us. But then I took a break and got on the motorcycle to drive down to Mike & Melisa’s. It was there that I learned that Melisa had already spoken to Kim and told her that she was making her some chicken soup to help her get well.
Chicken soup is an old wives tale, right? Not right. When chicken is cooked in soup, it releases an amino acid called cysteine. So besides the chicken providing a great source of protein and all the vegetables adding the the soups healthy aspects, that cysteine acts to thin mucus in the lungs and helping with de congestion. In other words, its really good for you whether you are unwell or well.
Melisa brought a big container of chicken soup over in the late afternoon and it served both Kim and me well for dinner and our good health. I made sure to let Kim have as much as she wanted since she was actually the recipient of this thoughtful gift, but there was plenty for me too and I have to say, it was amazingly good. I was impressed and called Melisa to tell her how good it was and how thoughtful she was to make it for us.
Do you remember the books that were popularized twenty-five years ago called Chicken Soup for the Soul? They were wonderful, heartfelt vignettes and short stories that were meant to be particularly soulful. They were for literature what a Hallmark Holiday Movie is for television. After reading a few of those books I think I felt I had had enough soul renovation. The value of anything like chicken soup, whether for the body or the soul, is probably in its uniqueness or specialness. I’m not prepared to say that either Kim or I are “cured” from one night of chicken soup, but good health is often all about feeling better. We already feel better, just from one evening of chicken soup.
So, I awoke this morning feeling strong, full of the added protein and cysteine from all that turbocharged chicken soup. I was out on the back hillside by 7am armed with my new machete, pruning shears, and a big green trash can for all the trimmings. I spent two hours chopping off the seed stalk heads of tree aeoniums, desert spoons and fan aloes. Three trash cans full went over the ravine cliffs on the back side of the property and all the succulents were mostly cleaned up. I had never used the new machete before and I was impressed with how cleanly it cut off those seed heads. I was careful with it when I realized just how sharp the blade was because I could just imagine myself going wide on a swing and having it cost me a finger or two. But that didn’t happen and all went well with the chore. I find there is nothing like working up a sweat with good honest work, especially in the morning. It’s a great way to start the day.
It’s a funny year here on the hilltop. We are already at the start of the summer season here on Memorial Day weekend, and the number of 80 degree days we have had so far this year can be counted on one hand, which is extraordinary. As I sit here today, I note that I had to do my back hillside work this morning in a light misting rain, and now I look out on a gloomy and overcast afternoon. I know that there are always weather anomalies and this year is just that, an anomaly. I am just hoping that June sees that weather pattern turn itself around so that my granddaughters can enjoy some typically wonderful San Diego weather. You see, this is a special year for my family and I want the weather to make it extra special.
As I have written about, this is the first year since 1996 that we have not had our home in Ithaca for my kids and now their kids to spend summer vacation. The plan for this year is to have them all come out here for a family reunion. In fact, my daughter, Carolyn, her husband John and my granddaughters Charlotte and Evelyn will be arriving here in 30 days and will be out here for a month. We have been looking forward to this visit for a year and we have an action-packed month all laid out. In fact, I don’t think we have more than a day or two unscheduled. We will spend a week in my cathedral of Southern Utah, at Capital Reefs, the Escalante Staircase, Bryce Canyon, Zion and both the North and South Rims of the Grandest Canyon of them all. We will take the girls to Disneyland, Universal Studios, Legoland, the Safari park and the Zoo. I get to spend an entire month with the two sweetest little girls I know. In the realm of family and summer, this visit is chicken soup for my soul.