Transglobe Blog The World in a Blog

Alison Kerr is an inhabitant of our green Earth. She lives in suburban eastern Kansas, USA with her husband, two teenage kids, and two strange but loveable cats. Alison writes at Loving Nature's Garden where she shares her joy of nature, gardening, good food, and the connections between us all on this beautiful green Earth.

I open my eyes. It's morning, but I'd rather sleep longer. I pick up a library book "50 Ways to Live the Good Life". I like this one. My husband is going out for the day. Out into the Kansas woods. I get out of bed. I try to wake up. I don't drink coffee - many days it takes a while. I check my e-mail and Twitter. I fix some food for my husband to take out with him. He can do it himself, but I like to do that for him.

My husband is gone. Still not awake, I'm back at my computer. I reply to comments on my blog. I like how other women identify with my article about my green granny. I learned a lot from my Scottish grandmother. I treasure the memories. It's time for breakfast - cinnamon raisin bagels and Nutella chocolate and hazelnut spread. It's one of my favorite breakfasts.

I'm awake now. I decide that the garden needs weeding. No, I don't live on the prairie. It's green with lots of trees where I live. I've spent too much time inside this week. The mosquitoes have been active recently. I put on insect repellent. I just hope it stops the chiggers too. Chiggers are very nasty little blighters - their favorite place is inside underwear. They're a plague on Kansas. I wonder if they have some real role in nature. I'd like to think so. Maybe they're here to remind me I'm not in charge.

Outside it's already warm. Milkweed vines are choking my prairie garden. As I pull them out I check them for Monarch caterpillars. I see only little orange sap-sucking nymphs. Hand-weeding takes time and patience but I don't like using chemicals. The ground is dry - I hope we get some of that forecast rain today. There is clover in the grass. I don't mind clover, but I dig out a few dandelions.

I call my son to get ready for martial arts. I drive him there. We really should walk or cycle - it's close enough. I go back to my weeding. I find small house crickets among the grass. I find a grub under a tuft of crabgrass I've removed. If the grubs become a problem I'll get a biological control for them. The crabgrass has been spreading and it leaves bare patches when I pull it out. Kansas isn't good for summer lawn. I see that my neighbors' lawns are suffering too from the lack of rain. I ponder for the umpty-umpth time how to get rid of lawn all together. It's so crazy what Americans pour into maintaining lawn - I wish I weren't part of that. Growing food makes much more sense.

Back inside my husband calls me on his cell phone. He's been with a friend who farms. The fence he spent days working on has been cut with wire cutters during its first week up. Two metal fence posts have been pulled up and taken. He doesn't know who did this or why. Trespassers have been entering his property to ride ATVs, there are beer bottles and cans spread around, someone put crayfish traps in the creek and a dad and son were fishing for bait on his private property without permission. It makes me mad that criminals call the shots, making work for the law-abiding. Poaching, break-ins and trespass are all too common in the Kansas countryside. People dump trash rather than take it to the landfill - old stoves, bed springs, sheets of corrugated iron, tires, batteries...

I weed some more. I check Twitter again. It's fun to read the responses to the question, "How long have you been blogging for?" @sampsa says 4 years. @mylittlesoapbox says 5 years. Wow! There's some longevity amongst my followers. @CB4Wildlife says her grandma has been on her mind all day. I love the connections brought to me by Twitter. I like to write things which give my readers' minds working and bring them good feelings.

It's time for lunch. We have gazpacho made by a kind neighbor. It's really good. Full of tomato and crunch and a little like salsa. My kids like it too. We eat sourdough bread from Costco with Olde English Cheddar cheese spread. That cheese spread needed to be gone from my pantry. We also have salt and vinegar flavored almonds, yum! And some mini tomatoes from my garden. The tomatoes are like candy, kind of addictive.

I go outside to weed for the third time. It gives me a zen like feeling to be out doing this by myself. I hear the occasional bird. Big raindrops start to fall on me. It feels nice, cool. I retreat to the porch and sit with my legs out in the rain. The sky is an even, pale gray. I don't think the rain will be enough to water the garden. The river birch tree in the front yard sways in the breeze. It's dancing. I think about writing about my day. I come inside and write this.

Later I will do more weeding, take a shower, fix a family meal. Soon I'll visit with neighbors and friends. We'll eat together, tell stories, talk about gardening and good food. I'll be homeschooling my kids. We'll work on writing, evaluate some spelling software, and read about Japan. New math will get us thinking. Our history timeline will have more events and inventions added to it. I'll talk and laugh with other moms - spreading literacy through good children's books and my Usborne book business.

When the fall comes I'll rake the leaves with my family; in winter we'll shovel snow together. In the spring I'll plant seeds and wait for the cabbage and lettuce to be big enough to eat. I'll weed again and grow new things. I'll do some yoga, prepare good food, go for walks, watch the sky, look and listen for birds, write and read a lot, make new friends, and think about others around the world. I guess I'll have to do the laundry and clean the house too!

My day isn't remarkable for where I live. But if you're living without shelter, sanitation, or good food and clean water, my life is fantastical. I can't change the world, but I try to change myself, to live more mindfully - change starts with me. What about you?