Early Spring activities

 You know, I thought I posted a few times last year...but they aren't here. Huh...

Anyway, spring has sprung at the Sacred Hart Suburban Animal Sanctuary and "Farm."   The phlox, Queen of the Nigth tulips, and one or two lonely daffodils bloomed and have faded, but just in time for the irises (pictured).

We have another batch of kittens born April 11ish and April 17.  We've seen three little black or dark grey ones a few days ago, but not since. Mamas Marbles and Patches are coparenting and have moved them twice but still in our yard.

We also had a litter of raccoons, which are just so stinkin' cute.  Mama Ricki still comes around for food, but I don't know where she moved them.

I'll post my 'done' list but I've spent most of my time since April-ish weeding. The first thing to come up in the spring is typically NOT anything I planted, but weeds. All those things that I need to evict from the beds.  So I spend 15 minutes a day, starting in the front and gradually move around the house. I am about halfway done now.

It is so interesting to see the diversity. There was a huge batch of chickweed, which looked like it would be easy to pull, but was not. Some plants spread out and so their roots are shallow; once you find the correct root, you can clear a whole bunch all at once. Of course some spread out and that root ISN'T that shallow.  Some have thick stems with sharp thingies but if you hold them the right way, even barehanded and pull, they come out really easily. Then others have thick steps with sharp thingies and the only right way to hold them is with gloves, and they are not going to come out easily.  (My favorites are the ones with sharp thingies ON their roots.)    Some are even super useful if you get them harvested at the right time. I did get the dandelions to make wine with. I did not get the purple dead nettle in time.  

So, what I have now is a mental library of various things growing where they're not allowed, and a repertoire of how to evict them.  I usually explain that they can have the whole yard, just stay out of the flower/vegetable beds.  

There's probably some deeper wisdom about all that. I invite you to find it :)

Here's what's happened so far. It took so much longer than it appears in writing... but also never takes as long as I think it will:

• 24 red onions planted Easter weekend (harvest around July 13)
• May 9
• red and white petunias around border of the front flower bed
• Marigolds around onions bed
• Red salvia of some kind in front bed near hummingbird feeder
• May 10
• Chadwick plant sale: bought and planted parsley, basil, marjoram, rosemary, and chamomile 
• All sorts of bird feeder maintenance
• Weeded second vegetable garden bed
• May 11 (Mother's Day)
• Made a hanging planter for mom (I didn't like any of the premade ones)
• May 12
• Jim finished second veggie garden bed for me, started on third
• planted 4 bell peppers and 4 'mystery tomatoes'.  
• planted marigolds (Need more marigolds)
• More birdfeeder stuff. All the hummingbird feeders are up (as of 5/11 I think). more regular bird feeders to get sorted, and probably need two more for the front.

Oh goodness....let's try this again! April 2023

 I have resisted even the MEAGEREST of garden journaling, even ignoring the pretty book I bought. Until this year when a friend at work suggested we journal stuff, and we would talk about it on Sundays when we worked. So... she started and I did not. Then... I just started.

So I've got handwritten journal entries.  Those have been somewhat easier as I keep the journal on the patio (a new edition, but that's another story) and write down things as they happen...INCLUDING wildlife sights and sounds.  Thus far we can count cats, several birds, raccoons, skunks, and as of a couple of nights ago, a toad sighting on the front porch where the bugs congregate around the light.  

I am not going to get distracted right now with pictures. I just want to get caught up. So we'll start with my entries for April.

4/8/2023  

• Birds I have heard, but yet seen (thanks to Merlin app) -- Northern Flicker, Bluebird
• New sunroom (the aforementioned patio) final walk through is Monday
• Getting late start but...
• Testing seed packs for viability. It says to check in 3 weeks but I may not wait that long
• Sugar snap peas
• Cilantro
• Orach
• Anna-something lettuce (my handwriting remains horrendous)
• Jericho lettuce
• Romaine lettuce
• Swiss Chard
• Buttercrunch lettuce
• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Danvers carrots
• Soil temperature is 47 degrees so still too early.
• Filled main bird feeder, ground feeder, meal worm cups and last suet cake
• FIRST BEES SEEN!!!

4/10/2023

• More clearing of future perennial vegetable plot - I had planted winter rye over the winter (duh); clearing it out was not quite as easy as advertised, at least in my beds
• Discovered the hand sickle is REALLY SHARP.
• Captured Goldfinch song on Merlin -- they are back!! filled and hung seed socks.
• Heard Bluebird again
• Other newbies heard:
• Worm-eating Warbler
• Tufted titmous
• Saw red head or downy woodpecker (couldn't get good look)

4/15/2023

• Planted 2 asparagus crowns from Jennifer. Tried to move the third one I have established into that bed, but it's pretty well in there; may need Jim's help, or just wait until after the season.

4/16/2023

• Replanted asparagus right side up (oops). I think I will make that whole bed asparagus so I will need 2-3 more (if I can't move the other one).
• Weeded front of new patio door -- lots of stuff from before popping up, so pulled roots too.
• FOUND A POTATO from last year! Yay, seed potato!

4/18/2023

• New humming bird feeder and bluebird feeder.  ALL feeders up and filled, or will be once I wash the bluebird ones.  I discovered I put the yellow bird feeder back together wrong so I will fix that when it gets half empty again.
• Got a bag-garden bed for the surprise potato

4/20/2023

• BLUEBIRD SPOTTED LAST NIGHT!
• Planted potatoes in the new bed-planter.  
• Jim is doing the platform on the side door of the patio
• LOVING the new rain barrel!!
• Lots of bees loving the flowers on the apple tree.

Next up ... MAY!!

Planted!

 Nearly all the things got planted the week of May 15-16.   So here's what they looked like then (I am so bad at updating this...)

This first bed is dedicated specifically to the spirits of the land.  You can see the milkweed growing on the left, and I planted goldenrod as well.  The third thing that was going in there I accidentally didn't buy and now I don't know what it was. So stay tuned. There's also a hummingbird feeder in this one but I'm about done with this design.  The humming birds don't seem to see it and it's hard to clean, so now it's all gross and mildewy inside.

Nature Spirits

 This next bed is in the other corner of the house and just by default is dedicated to the ancestors. I'm not sure what else to put in there.  That is a crap ton of sage that is blooming beautifully. There's room for something else behind it (besides the weeds I dug out) and I'm still thinking of what that might be. It gets the fullest sun of all but one bed in the garden.

Ancestors

 This is a bit of the moongarden.  If I remember right, those are some kind of primrose? They come on like gangbusters.  I think we're going to get some fairy houses to put in there, knowing full well the controversy over the nature of the Good People.  I don't think it could to give them some nice houses though, right?

Moon Garden

 First of the food beds, and it's somewhat sparsely planted right now.   One of those is the Lazy Wife beans (no strings) and the other is some sort of dwarf melon.  I have plans to add more beans (good for the soil and the peeps, too!)  but I'm also not sure how much room the melon is going to end up needing.  Up in the top left-ish corner you can see the volunteer chives from last year.

Next bed is all tomatoes all the time.  And I think one of the peppers.  Right now, something is munching on the leaves, so I applied so Neem in the hopes I wasn't too late.

(TBC...I have more pictures but I they won't post for some reason..)

Weekend? More like GREENKend....

Okay, not funny.

This is, however THE weekend of gardening. If Spring/Beltane/Summer had a "Black Friday" weekend, this would be it.

Today, I went to Chadwick Arboretum's Plant Sale and Auction.  I had heard about this, but last year was the first year I went, with the Lovely and Talented Misty. Misty is so lovely and talented, she now as a job, so I went by myself.  I arrived at OSU, kicking myself for not making a List to Be Adhered To (as to avoid overspending), and resolved to be Sensible and not get more than the cart would allow.

The carts hold quite a lot.

I meandered around. I'm never sure what to get, even if I know what I'm looking for.  I mean, I want a 'tomato' but there's 87 million varieties, and each booth has overlapping types and they're organic and stuff and....*sigh*  I let intuition guide me, usually.  They have lots of good stuff, so if you're available Saturday you should check it out.

I probably got there at 8:30 and was home by 10, with:

Flowers:  Nasturtium, Brutus Hosta ("created" there at OSU, hence the name), blue salvia, pink salvia, and goldenrod for the butterfly garden. I got something else for that garden, but it didn't have a tag, and I couldn't remember where I got it.  Sadly, that did not mean I got it for free and since at the time I didn't know what it was or where it belonged, back it went.

Herbs:  Marjoram, oregano, lavendar, basil, parsley, lemon grass, and rosemary

Vegetables:  2 zucchini, 2 pickling cucumbers, lunchbox peppers, 2 yankee bell peppers, 2 amish paste tomatoes, 2 some other slicing tomato (heirloom!), 1 black cherry tomato.

You'd think I'd be done, but tomorrow is the Gahanna Herb Show.  I'll be meeting Beth, Misty, maybe Julie and Teresa for breakfast before we descend upon it.  I really don't have much to get after today, but I liked their pole beans from last year (although I have seeds I got last year too), and I'm sure I can find something.

The seeds I sprouted are doing okay. I forgot to bring them in one night, so I'm not sure how they're going to do.  I might want to replace them with actual plantlings, but we'll see.  I do need to replace some strawberry plants. I wish I had seen that before this morning; they had some there.

I came home and had second breakfast, and then after cleaning up from that, I pulled weeds in the raised beds to get them ready.  Almost every bed has had it's spring weeding, except the moon garden, and that's almost done.  I just don't know what belongs there and what doesn't.  Seamus will have to do that, and then roto-till the beds.  I may want to turn the compost and see if I get some good stuff to roto-till in there.

Pictures forthcoming.

As I look at my big box of green-kins, I remember last year how excited I was for the summer growing season to come, and the plans I had...and then how that was completely kicked to the curb by random mystery illness....it's hard to raise that level of hope again, but such is the lingering emotional challenge of the past year.  I almost didn't do any gardening at all this year, but that would be to admit defeat and while I don't always feel like it, I follow the maxim sometimes of "Fake it, 'til you make it." So much doesn't seem real, like it happened to someone else....but not all.

So I plant.  The Earth heals.

aaaaand....DONE!

Finally!

I had been trying to wait until we had our first fire so we could use the ashes in the Three Sister's Garden, however that was just taking way too long.  So this morning while Jim watered the rest, I raked the dirt where the squirrels and robins had been all in it, and then planted eight kernels of Peaches and Cream sweet corn.  I put a stake near each one so we'd know where they were.  With that everything is done.

As of now, then, everything that was on that list is planted except the moonflowers and calendula.  It looks thusly:

To the very far left are the strawberries, which I have fertilizer and dirt for.  They've already started to produce...over achievers!  To their right I have sweet banana peppers (Jim's request) and green bell peppers, and a whole lot of space.  Not sure what to do with all that, but something will go there.  The middle bed has six remaining of eight pickling cucumbers, and then two zucchini plants.  It very well may also have some space remaining, even though I know how much both of those plants branch out.  On the right side is the tomatoes, where I have two Prudens beefsteaks, two Amish Pastes, and one Black Cherry...because who doesn't want black cherry tomatoes!  I also put the garlic and chives in that one.

That leaves the new bed, which is the Three Sister's bed.  Hopefully, Elsie the Owl will keep the squirrels and birds away from the corn kernels which will hopefully sprout.  The suggestion we got here I just realized I totally did not follow, planting in rows rather than in a circle.  I think I thought each kernal got it's own mound.  Oops.  But, the timing of the things I plan on following so there's that....

Next, I decided to do something with the corn dollies I had made last year and the year before.  I hadn't burned the oldest one yet, so decided they should both go out.  I picked some of the flowers in the yard, and added them, and each one got affixed to a post, one in the Three Sister's garden, and the other in the tomato bed.

I already got a start on this year's with some corn we had on Memorial Day.  Even if we don't get any ears in the ones we planted, maybe we will at least get some stalks so we can make them from our own yard.

And, just for fun, here's a picture of the Butterfly Garden:

The milkweed from last year seems to have taken off (and indeed, can be found in various other places in my yard).  I also planted the tangerine sage there, but all the pretty red blooms fell off, so hopefully more will come back.  I also put the dill there, since some caterpillars like that.

Most of the annual herbs went into containers on the patio, but I decided to try the perennials in the yard.  In the flower garden around the deck I put the chamomile, lavender, and one variety of sage., and then in the matching Garden-To-Be-Named-Later in the other corner, I put the common sage.

I still have more to do, but it's very nice. We have lots of birds at the feeder, and two squirrels (at least).  The birds sing all day and pretty soon the 17-year cicadas will bust out.  It feels very much like being out in the country, even though we are basically in the land of suburban sprawl.  It's actually fairly peaceful, and I can't wait until the deck is done and I can sit there and just observe all the life out there.

Changes and Stuff

So, as you can see, I have changed the name of the blog back to it's original.  We are every so slowly adjusting to our new normal, but I believe there isn't a day that goes by that we aren't laughing or crying (or sometimes both) over something that reminds us of Janet.

This week everyone and their brother appears to have their plant sales.  I went to Chadwick Arboretum's's plant sale/fundraiser on Friday at 8am, meeting my friend, Misty, and her adorable son, Liam.  We went to Tee-Jaye's afterward.  Then I got up early this morning and met another friend, Beth, at Creekside Cafe in Gahanna, and went to the Gahanna Herb Day after that.  Want to see a list of what I bought?

There's a plethora of stuff on there...herbs, flowers, heirloom veggies. I went without a list, and still really didn't either forget anything OR get any extra stuff I didn't intend to get.

(As an aside, I am totally going to hire Misty and Beth to be my gardeners when I win the Powerball!)

The book that's in is a "gardening journal" I bought in 2010.  It's a blank book, that isn't actually completely blank.  But  I think that's like page two.  As you can see, I am also jotting down where things go, and not everything has a home yet.  So, I sketched out the backyard so we can start thinking about it, thusly...

Good thing we didn't waste money on art school!
Totally not to any kind of logical scale.

That is as you stand on the deck looking out towards the back.  I have a good sense of where the annual herbs should go, in pots on the deck.  Everything else is up in the air, as I'm thinking of moving perennial herbs to the flower bed around the deck...my HOPE is they can be sort of shaded by the flowers that are there while they get established, and over the winter, and then been fairly self-sufficient after that.  The perennials don't seem to do really well over the winter in the containers.

It was threatening rain, so I didn't do much more before work.  I pulled some thyme that overwintered to start drying some more.  I love the way my hands smell after I do that!  Tomorrow morning I will  be all about the weeding and getting of the things ready.  Monday, Jim doesn't work, so that will likely be when the heavier work is getting done.  He's going to make me at least one new bed, maybe two to replace the pallets (to the right of the oak, and then above that one).

I have filled the hummingbird feeders, and one of the plants is a hummingbird attractant, so we shall wait.  I also have a way longer tale to tell you about our epic battle between a hawk and some squirrels, but that will have to wait for another time.

And there we have it.

On June 11, I had started a new post entitled "Managing the Inevitable."  In it, I updated Janet's recent and abrupt change and decline in Alzheimer's symptoms. She had become combative, would refuse food and medicine (but could usually be cajoled into them).  She was packing her stuff in a very haphazard disorganized fashion because her nephew (she believed) was coming to take her to her sister's.

We got emergency nursing home placement.  She got sick.  She went to the ER, then ICU.  She recovered some.  We placed her in our first choice nursing home.  The first night she fell trying to get out of bed.  That afternoon she was gone.  June 29, 2015.  I hadn't yet adjusted to her being across town, but at least then I could check in and see her.  Now I can't even do that.

And that's nothing compared to my husband and his sister's pain.

I mentioned before, Alzheimer's is more than just memory loss.  It attacks all parts of the brain; even those parts that are responsible for things like being hungry and breathing and the like.

But...if I am at least grateful for two things.

1.She had a good visit with her son and daughter and granddaughter the day before.  She knew who they were.

2.  She did not decline further.  She will not be in that line of people at the nursing home, staring off into space, not knowing where they are, who they are.  Alzheimer's didn't beat her after all.

The last few weeks...months, really... have been a blur.  But life requires we move on, as it keeps happening regardless.  I see events happening that I may have once been invited to, but care-giving-related invitation declines have seen me fall off many 'must invite' lists.  I need to get back to social life.

AND, back to my garden, which actually has been happening in the midst of all the other.  I could read back to see what I've already talked about, but instead I'll just state where we are.  Today Jim and I staked the tomatoes and peppers.  The tomatoes had outgrown the little thingies I had, so we got proper stakes for them.  The rain has left them loaded with green fruit, so hopefully the dry and heat of this coming week will start the ripening process.  there are blossoms on the peppers, too.  I normally don't stake them, but rain keeps beating them down.

The zucchini and squash are doing .... so-so.  I've gotten two zucchinis and one squash off two plants of each.  It looks the rain just smashed the plants completely, so we'll see what the dry spell does.

I think I am going to have to give up on broccoli.  I never get the big bunches I see in stores, and it bolts really quickly.  The Brussel sprouts are starting to form though.  They seem to take forever, though, so I may want to rethink them both in favor of something that produces well and doesn't take so long.

I did finally plant beans and they have sprouted up nicely.  Allegedly there is no trellising required for these (but we shall keep an eye on that).

Strawberries and raspberries are sort of mediocre this year, but the apple tree is LOADED.  We don't spray so they aren't "pretty" but they are definitely bigger this year than last, and more plentiful.  One of these years we will look at the 'organic apple growing' sites and figure out what we're doing.  Jim also finally planted our grape vine, so hopefully it's not too late for the plant to survive, even if we don't get grapes this year.

Right now the bumper crop is cucumbers, which are following the 'three years to success' model that almost everything else has.  Of course, I was growing them for Janet, who LOVED them.  I see relish in my future.

Also in addition to the tomato stakes on our trip to Lowe's, we got birdseed.  I need to fill the birdfeeder (edit: done) and refill the hummingbird feeders.  Janet was insistent about those.

Herbs are drying in the window, but I need to get those taken down and stored so I can hang more.

The cicadas are singing, signifying for me the beginning of Lughnasadh, and now the hope for having things to can and preserve.  While my hope is only for hobby's sake, it's a small snippet of how people must have felt this time of year.  I know my garden this year isn't going to do much (survival on apples, tomatoes, and cucumbers would not be pleasant!) so already we are planning for next year.  The last remaining pallets will be replaced with actual raised beds, and maybe one more.  I'm also not using straw as a mulch again.  It may keep weeds down, but those that do land get hopelessly tangled with the straw.  But, those are all things for future posts.

First Harvest!

Well, it has actually been happening for a while now, but the zucchini is putting out fruit like you wouldn't believe and they are BIG.  It's like I'll check in the morning, and there are little or no zucchini, and then later I'll look and holy COW!  I anticipate a lot of zucchini bread in my future.

The raspberries have finally started to come in, but this looks like it will be a low harvest year for those.  Strawberries have stopped, but then there was new foliage and new blooms, so perhaps a second harvest on those.  One of the neighborhood kids LOVES strawberries and has occasionally asked to help me pick them, although I haven't seen him since I got back from Starwood.  He is very interested in strawberry jam, however.  We have also gotten about half a serving of green beans.  And there may finally be sprouts on the brussels.

It is time to take in the last of the lettuce, I think and maybe throw some more seeds out to 'see what happens.'  The tomatoes and peppers are getting a slow start, but I anticipate that will fix itself.  Two of the cucumber plants look like they'll not make it and the bean seeds I planted later only yielded two plants that are just kinda...there.  I do still have a pretty bean pyramid structure ready for them, in case they take off.

Tonight, therefore, we'll be celebrating our first harvest, commonly referred to among druidy parts as Lughnasadh.  The calendar says that is on Aug 1, but in keeping with my plan discussed elsewhere of going with the energy of the land, we're doing it today.  I had hoped to time it with the tomatoes or the sunflowers but as those both got in later than anticipated, that may put it after the Equinox! As part of that, we'll be sacrificing last year's Corn Dolly to the fire, and blessing the new one I just finished making.  Here is last year's:

The shawl she has on was one of my first crochet attempts last year.  She's made of corn husks not from corn I grew (because I don't...yet) but from the area.  Ohio is corn country (some call it maize) and so that's what I use.  Because it's for our land, I augmented it with a piece of bean stalk, and some flowers and herbs we're growing.

Here is next year's.  She is unadorned, as of yet.

Hopefully this will bring on the harvest of many things

Janet had a visit with a social worker to get her on a program whereby they will take her to "adult day care" five days a week and maybe get some other assistance.  It's a temporary fix, however, as she continues to decline.  Today was a good day though.  We went to Goodwill so she could drop of clothes, because "Someone else might get some use out of them."  Then to Walgreen's so she could get some Gas X and finally, Tim Hortons.  Coffee and a doughnut has become our thing while running errands.

I sat outside for a bit after dinner, eating my new favorite dessert of cherries and almonds, listening to the birds.  We appear to have a late nest of robins, as a mother (I'm guessing) and juvenile were bipping around the yard.  They need to get on that eating of bugs they are allegedly so good at.

I had hoped she would participate some in the evening festivities, mainly distributing fairies and placing Elsie.  I purchased the fairies when we bought the house and hoped to decorate the yard with them.  Finally the yard feels like a place worth decorating.

I also found a place for Elsie the Owl.  Elsie had been sitting by the backdoor, looking like an extra cat out of the corner of an eye.  Elsie's head also had the eerie habit of spinning around for no damn good reason.  Sure, maybe it was slightly nudged by someone as they walked by, but it just wouldn't stop.   The first time it did that, Jim said, "Oh, that thing needs to GO."  Agreed, and now she's outside where hopefully she can freak out whatever is eating the flowers.

Regardless, Janet didn't feel good, which she blamed on having to take too much insulin (really it's because her glucose is too high, but whatever.  Picking battles.)  Jim came home and ate, we had a fire, we made offerings and got omens.  The wheel keeps turning.

Bolting for Solstice

From Wikipedia:

Bolting is when agricultural and horticultural crops prematurely produce a flowering stem (or stems) before the crop is harvested, in a natural attempt to produce seeds and hence reproduce. These flowering stems are usually vigorous extensions of existing leaf-bearing stems, and in order to produce them, a plant diverts resources away from producing the edible parts such as leaves or roots, resulting in a poor quality harvest from the grower's point of view. Plants that have produced flowering stems in this way are said to have bolted.



From me: 

Bolting is when I realize I am not getting fresh broccoli this season.

This past few weeks I have learned about bolting.  Both my spinach and my broccoli did so.  I managed to salvage enough spinach leaves to get barely two servings for Janet and I.  Despite warnings that the leaves would be tough, they were fine.  I credit the healing power of bacon grease.  Bacon fixes all things.  That and a little lemon juice, then crumble the bacon used to get the grease from, ta da! Delish.

I am not so lucky with the broccoli.  I cut everything off in the empty hope that maybe it will sprout anew.  
My head lettuce also liquified from the insides out.

For those keeping score that's a yield of 2 servings of spinach out of six plants, no broccoli out of six and no head lettuce out of six. 

Ah well. 

The strawberries however were going like gangbusters, until yesterday.  We finally have raspberries on the plants, and tiny little apples.  I didn't think we'd get any apples, as I thought the frost killed all the blossoms.  

This past weekend we finally finished planting everything we have to plant.  After I pulled the spinach and slimy lettuce, there was room to plant the tomatoes and bell peppers.  I bought a yellow squash and a zucchini so I will at least get three of one or the other.  (For those who didn't watch the video, I lost track of which plant was what, so I have no idea whether I've already planted two zucchinis or two squashes).  The beans are looking good so I put up the twine scaffolding I had last year.  Janet came out and turned over the onion leaves so they would bulb.  

The herb pots have expanded.  In the big one I put basil, oregano, and parsley, and then the smaller ones have rosemary, lavender, and a LOT of sweet woodruff.  I got one plant from a friend and then bought what ended up being six more at Dill's. They are small enough that I can bring them inside over the winter, but I do want to get another large planter.  While I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all the woodruff, there was one benefit.  When it rained a little bit ago and I went outside, the scent was AMAZING.

Really, the only thing left is finding some cucumbers we can make pickles out of, and then maybe some more beans.  We have one more pallet and some dirt, so we shall be good.

Last night we opened the deck in style with an impromptu cookout.  Three friends came over spur of the moment.  Janet made lemonade, showing me how to do it, and she ate with us.  The lights are on the canopy, torches were filled and lit, and it was basically THE perfect evening.  The only thing that would have been better would have been the fire lit, but I need to fix up the firepit.  That is the plan for this evening. Maybe once that is all done we'll take another video tour so you can see how stuff has changed.

In other news, Janet bought an owl.  Not a real one, one of the garden ones used to deter pests.  She said "Owls are good people," and since it's both her money and something with which I totally agree, I didn't argue.  She named it Elsie after her best friend.  Elsie was also an asshole, I hear.  Right now the owl is sitting inside as we decide what to do with her.  She continues to freak us out, as she looks like a cat...or...something....

We have reached the point in this odyssey where outside assistance with her is necessary.  We have someone coming for an assessment in July.  While it will be nice for help, this is just an unpleasant reminder that things are not going to get better.  Ever.  And that is heartbreaking.

But....The garden still grows, and I still get stories, and help, and occasionally little gems of wisdom. When she told me about the owl she tried to keep as a pet, I showed her my shelf of owl figurines, and that made her smile. 

Solstice is in a few days and I will be at festival.  Hopefully everyone will take care of the garden while I'm gone.  May the blessings of the shining sun be upon you and yours!

Video tour!

Hopefully!  I'm experimenting with this.  I thought, instead of taking a bunch of pictures...why not video?  So let's see if this works:

I did harvest the broccoli.  The stuff that had NOT gone to seed is about worth MAYBE one salad topping's worth of broccoli, but if I'm right (which I am probably not) there will be more coming.