Weekend Recap, featuring BBQ, Cats, and the Garden
I left my planner at home. I have a planning meeting at noon. Aaaaaaaaargh.
Welcome back from a long weekend here in the US of A. I, for one, had a very good weekend, and managed to avoid marching bands of all sorts. When I was a kid, I always had to march in the Memorial Day parade. I'm not sure I have ever even seen a Memorial Day parade, to be honest, because I've always been in them, usually weilding some sort of brass instrument.
On Friday evening, Steve and I attended a dinner at my place of employment. We had a good dinner, and a good conversation with some of the other people at our table. One had moved to Vermont from Seattle, so we talked a bit about our small piece of common ground. (I refrained from expressing most of my true feelings about that particular city and stuck, instead, to amusing stories about my own self-sabotaging experiences there.) After dinner, Steve and I stayed in town at a motel because I had to participate in another event for a couple of hours in the morning. After that event, we had lunch at a restaurant neither of us had been to before, filled up our gas tanks on the 20 cents a gallon cheaper Vermont gas, and headed back home.
I failed to do much of anything for the rest of Saturday. Steve had to work that night, and I think I did a little housework and watched the race before going to bed.
On Sunday we had a bunch of people over for an evening barbecue and bonfire, so we spent the day cleaning and preparing for that. The weather was perfect, and I think everyone had a good time. I know I did, although I do tend to run out of party steam long before the party ends. We had a manageable number of guests and estimated the necessary amount of food pretty well. The only major mishap was forgetting to take a huge pan of baked beans out of the oven where we were storing it and only remembering it the next morning.
Monday was planting day! I managed to get in the beans, broccoli, 3 varieties of tomato, zucchini, summer squash and butternut squash before quitting for the day. Our very labor intensive garden requires that, for each plant planted, I first dig a hole and remove any number of rocks and small boulders from it (three required a crow bar and two required back up forces in the form of Steve), then I throw a couple of shovels full of topsoil and a shovel full of compost into the hole, fill what's left with the original dirt (can't really call it "soil") and mix it all together. Only then could I stick the little seedlings into the ground. Thus, I was utterly exhausted before getting around to the peppers, cucumbers, eggplant or herbs. (I did put sage and lavender into the lower of the two front step planters, but the herbs I might actually use have to wait.) I also want to plant pumpkin in another location. So there is still much work to be done this week, in small spurts after work and in between rain storms. I didn't have time this morning to look in on the transplanted seedlings and see if they survived the night.
Nothing - nothing! - makes me happier than working in the garden. I love the dirt, I love the plants, I don't love the rocks, but I guess they provide some excitement and challenge. I love the feeling of tiredness that comes from hard physical labor, and I love the feeling of cleanliness that comes after getting covered in dirt and then washing it all off. Sitting in my garden among tomato plants and baby leaf spinach, I am fully aware that this is what I want to do with my life. I have no idea how to make it a reality. I suspect that my true avocation will always be relegated to the category of "Hobby."
Carla the kitten is integrating into the household. She spent most of the weekend out in the general population, much to Bennett's dismay. Minnie seems ok with it all. She really only gets annoyed when Carla decides to pounce on her tail. Then Minnie whips around in a very un-geriatric fashion and makes a low and menacing growl, causing Carla to vanish into thin air. (Carla is remarkably good at vanishing into thin air, and appearing from it.) Bennett is slowly accepting Carla. Emphasis on the slow. They touched noses this morning. I think Carla is terrified of Bennett, which is reasonable since he outweighs her by about 8 pounds, but Bennett is even more terrified of Carla.
I hope everyone had a good weekend. If anyone can think of a way for me to become a subsistance farmer without having to give up my Internet connection and without having my entire life repossessed by creditors, let me know.
Welcome back from a long weekend here in the US of A. I, for one, had a very good weekend, and managed to avoid marching bands of all sorts. When I was a kid, I always had to march in the Memorial Day parade. I'm not sure I have ever even seen a Memorial Day parade, to be honest, because I've always been in them, usually weilding some sort of brass instrument.
On Friday evening, Steve and I attended a dinner at my place of employment. We had a good dinner, and a good conversation with some of the other people at our table. One had moved to Vermont from Seattle, so we talked a bit about our small piece of common ground. (I refrained from expressing most of my true feelings about that particular city and stuck, instead, to amusing stories about my own self-sabotaging experiences there.) After dinner, Steve and I stayed in town at a motel because I had to participate in another event for a couple of hours in the morning. After that event, we had lunch at a restaurant neither of us had been to before, filled up our gas tanks on the 20 cents a gallon cheaper Vermont gas, and headed back home.
I failed to do much of anything for the rest of Saturday. Steve had to work that night, and I think I did a little housework and watched the race before going to bed.
On Sunday we had a bunch of people over for an evening barbecue and bonfire, so we spent the day cleaning and preparing for that. The weather was perfect, and I think everyone had a good time. I know I did, although I do tend to run out of party steam long before the party ends. We had a manageable number of guests and estimated the necessary amount of food pretty well. The only major mishap was forgetting to take a huge pan of baked beans out of the oven where we were storing it and only remembering it the next morning.
Monday was planting day! I managed to get in the beans, broccoli, 3 varieties of tomato, zucchini, summer squash and butternut squash before quitting for the day. Our very labor intensive garden requires that, for each plant planted, I first dig a hole and remove any number of rocks and small boulders from it (three required a crow bar and two required back up forces in the form of Steve), then I throw a couple of shovels full of topsoil and a shovel full of compost into the hole, fill what's left with the original dirt (can't really call it "soil") and mix it all together. Only then could I stick the little seedlings into the ground. Thus, I was utterly exhausted before getting around to the peppers, cucumbers, eggplant or herbs. (I did put sage and lavender into the lower of the two front step planters, but the herbs I might actually use have to wait.) I also want to plant pumpkin in another location. So there is still much work to be done this week, in small spurts after work and in between rain storms. I didn't have time this morning to look in on the transplanted seedlings and see if they survived the night.
Nothing - nothing! - makes me happier than working in the garden. I love the dirt, I love the plants, I don't love the rocks, but I guess they provide some excitement and challenge. I love the feeling of tiredness that comes from hard physical labor, and I love the feeling of cleanliness that comes after getting covered in dirt and then washing it all off. Sitting in my garden among tomato plants and baby leaf spinach, I am fully aware that this is what I want to do with my life. I have no idea how to make it a reality. I suspect that my true avocation will always be relegated to the category of "Hobby."
Carla the kitten is integrating into the household. She spent most of the weekend out in the general population, much to Bennett's dismay. Minnie seems ok with it all. She really only gets annoyed when Carla decides to pounce on her tail. Then Minnie whips around in a very un-geriatric fashion and makes a low and menacing growl, causing Carla to vanish into thin air. (Carla is remarkably good at vanishing into thin air, and appearing from it.) Bennett is slowly accepting Carla. Emphasis on the slow. They touched noses this morning. I think Carla is terrified of Bennett, which is reasonable since he outweighs her by about 8 pounds, but Bennett is even more terrified of Carla.
I hope everyone had a good weekend. If anyone can think of a way for me to become a subsistance farmer without having to give up my Internet connection and without having my entire life repossessed by creditors, let me know.