The Garden Babies

It's late afternoon and the air is soft.  The new babies in the Victorian Square Ft. Garden are unfurling and spreading out.  Jesse comes out to get involved, licks my watercolors, rubs up against the handle of my brush, then walks across the page and over to the front lawn where he seems to have gone to ground after a vole.  Meanwhile here are, from left to right, an okra, some leaf lettuce, some Russian kale, and

basil, Swiss chard, some arugula marching across the bottom and a cucumber seedling.  The okra and the cucumber still have their baby cotyledon leaves, reminders of how short as time ago they were inside their seeds.  The spinach is not yet sprouting, and four squares still await tomatoes, parsley, and cilantro.  Drawing these plants brings me right into their silence.