At the end of the rainbow -- jcarolek

I returned home from my out of town training yesterday. As always, it was good to be home. It really doesn't matter whether I am traveling for training, work or pleasure, returning home to sleep in my own bed is truly a reward.

Though I'd been gone only three and a half days, as I find so often, things were noticeably different upon my return. Yes, the grass needs cutting again (I think it grows double time when I am not here to glare at it daily), but that's not what really struck me as my broken car rolled down the driveway to the garage. What struck me was the tobacco.

I had decided to try growing some tobacco this year, something I'd never tried before. Not being a smoker, I'd never really considered it, but this year, with the huge tax levied on cigarettes and cigarette tobacco, I thought there must be a lot of people who would try to grow their own. Curious about the whole process, I decided it would be an interesting experiment. I suppose I've made about every mistake I could have, in my first tobacco crop -- you know, starting the seeds later than I should have, transplanting the weaklings... err, I mean seedlings, when it was too hot outside, nearly losing all of the plants in the brilliant sun and resulting heat. There were / are the horned tobacco worms, grasshoppers, aphids, and snails.... and pretty much EVERY one of these critters wants to devour my crop!

So when I drove down the driveway and saw the tobacco, a lovely dark green, clearly responding to the most recent helping of nutrients, I smiled. Maybe the crop is a small one. Still, the plants look better than they did when I left town.



The other thing that struck me was the pond. The water has, once again, been lowered to allow the contractor to perform some work on the newly completed dam. That means I have more mud than water at my end of the pond.



But above the mud, the sky was blue, deep blue. And the puffy white clouds made the sky look even bluer. It wasn't until I looked at the photos on the computer that I saw the rainbow. It's small, but there is no denying it's existence. Yes, home really is just there... right there, at the end of the rainbow. It is so nice to be home.