This Thursday's Thankfulest Things are...

1. A periwinkle-flowered* garden

This is the "blueberry hill" we built in the spring of 2003 and planted with eight blueberries, all of which have died. However! the blue asters, blue salvia, pincusion flowers, lavendar, evoluvus, lamb's ears, and sage are all doing nicely, as are the various white and yellow roses, and I am happy.
*For Valerie, who knows how much I love periwinkle


2. A hard-working hubby

We have five rose bushes growing here beside the driveway, and before Monday, they were accompanied by a thin strip of lamb's ears transplanted from the blueberry hill, and completely surrounded (and sometimes engulfed) by grass. Here, Mike is digging up all the grass and making it into a real bed where, later that afternoon, he helped me plant four dozen daffodil bulbs, pink, white, and yellow snapdragons, pink and white petunias, two pineapple sages and two red-flowering sages, and more lamb's ears. Unfortunately, I forgot to take an "after" picture.


3. A very good book
Last week, Carmon had a poll in her sidebar asking which Jane Austen novel is your favorite, and I had to answer "Please don't make me choose!" Peter Leithart's excellent explanations of the major themes of each novel just cemented my prior conviction - my favorite Jane Austen book is whichever one I happen to be reading at the time.

You simply must get this book! And don't forget - "Real Men Read Austen." :-D