Week in Review

Yesterday: by 10am it was 55°f, or 13°C. Very chilly and windy as heck. Bright blue sky and little scattered clouds, low humidity. This morning 37°f, overcast. 

Wrote this yesterday but for some reason it didn't post. 

Some days I don't even know where to start writing. It has been such a busy week, with so much variety. Let's see:

Monday: unpack, laundry, and housework. Weeded some in the flowerbeds. Cleaned the ramps and got them in the dehydrator. Picked up more mulch in town, firepit in the evening.

Tuesday--restocked and tidied up our booths in Ravenswood, then over to Athens County, Ohio, in search of a "bluebell preserve" a friend told me about. We found the trail, but there were not many bluebells. Still, it was a beautiful place, and there were many wildflowers in bloom. And there were some bluebells at least, so perhaps in future there will be many more. 

Some of the other flowers we saw:

Blue-eyed Mary.

There were great swaths of this lovely flower, which was new to me.

Eue anemone, sometimes called windflower, I think.

Wild geranium

Common but still one of my favorites, blue violets

Just a restful place to visit, even on an unusually warm day.

Nice firepit that evening capped a pretty nice day.

Wednesday: packed a bunch of eBay sales, worked on paperwork, hoed out the three little rows of onions, beets, carrots, spinach and chard. Hand-weeded the lettuce and radishes. Made ramp salt. No firepit as the day was far too windy.

Thursday: went to look at some furniture a young friend wanted to sell. Loved the place she and her guy are renovating; the house needs a ton of work-- it is built around an old one room log cabin and has several log outbuildings, including a falling-down barn which, sadly, they plan to burn. 

We ended up making 2 trips, and the van still needs to be unloaded. Came home to do more stringtrimming. Firepit time again.  We saw this fellow at a gas station. Handsome, isn't he?

Friday: out in the garden early to till, then plant cabbages, broccoli, brussels sprouts,  rhubarb, onions and horseradish. Stringtrimmed the untilled parts of the garden, weeded the accidental strawberry patch (accidental because i planted strawberries in tubs so they would be easier to care for, but they sent out runners and now we have a patch of berries in the middle of the garden). 

On the very upper end is a row of garlic and in front of that, but can't see in the photo is a row of purple asparagus, which we planted last year.

In the late afternoon we went to town to tidy up our Ripley booth,  pick up potting soil and straw, and meet up with friends for supper.

Today I began transplanting the seedlings in my little greenhouse--tomatoes and Savoy cabbage. Then out in the gardens, spreading mulch, planting a rosebush and weeding, weeding, weeding. Larry cut grass and worked on my tiller, as the clutch is messing up. Apparently the part we need is no longer available so I am searching for another tiller.  Bummer, but it is 8 years old and has seen a lot of use.

Mixed in between work were long phone calls with youngest son in Florida, oldest son on his 55th (!) birthday, third son to catch up on the past week, and with 4th son to catch up on the past 2 months--he's not one to call very often but when we talk its usually for an hour or more. Also had a long call with grandson Clayton who is stateside at last and thank goodness out of that mess with the pirates in the mid-East. He leaves the Navy in June, and is looking forward to the steps in his life.

So there's most of what transpired around here this week. Always a bit frantic in Spring, as there is so much to get done in the gardens and yard. But it's work I love and Larry good-humoredly tolerates, most of the time.

It's supposed to be a chilly 35°f tonight, or 2°C, I think, so it will be an inside, movie night for us!

Getting mighty pretty up on the ridge.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.