The big news is: one of the tiny lilac saplings bloomed!!!  A few of us were down on the ground staring at it in wonder and taking pics!  This is what gets garden people excited.  That made my year.  An auspicious sign!  Hope!

I could see Easter eggs weren’t happening for the kids this year, and some of them still look forward to the hunt, so I compromised and set up a mini-hunt for each of them, especially S.  Of course, each kid has their list of candy demands and hates, which I totally ignored.  Some of them were somewhat pleased, anyway, so that’s what counts.

The rest of the day was garden projects.  I brought out Y’s flowering plants to harden off up against the house.  I cleaned up and re-strawed the perennial veg/fruit beds, so they’re much happier.  The asparagus, left to its own devices, has turned into a fern tree!  Soon the strawberry plants will arrive.

I sowed a big assortment of zinnias in front of the veg garden (left side; the right side is calendula).  The rest of the outside will be Y’s flowers, and sunflowers in back, etc.  Lots of milkweeds are coming up in the veg garden, as I expected!

I also thinly straw-mulched some other beds, where all kinds of seedlings are coming up.  Just looking around, I can see some of my enhancements are paying off.  Sometimes I just sit in amazement at all this beauty and wildlife taking over.  I’m letting trees come back to restore a more woodland surrounding.

Because I composted many of the beds, it’s fun to see all kinds of squash, melons, cucumber, etc. seedlings volunteering everywhere.  I may not have to do as much work!  Pretty soon the garden will grow itself!

The rock is just a rock I really like.  S and I were discussing whether it was sedimentary or metamorphic.  He’s been learning a lot, and can express himself intelligently about many subjects, including some issues that beset our country and world, such as climate change.

Can you spot the dog patiently waiting for another round of frisbee?  He lives for it.

S (the youngest) arrived today for his spring break.  He’s of course taller, somewhat more self-regulated, and very preteen.  I won’t elaborate!  Instead of droning on and on about his personal fantasy world, he’s been wanting to have serious confidential conversations with me about real world concerns and hormonal changes.  Nothing fazes me; in fact I feel flattered that he trusts me to discuss those issues with.  On the other hand, sometimes he still just acts silly and kid-like, and I still regressively join in.   We have a pretty good rapport.

He showed me his latest Minecraft designs, and we talked outside.  Then he read to me out loud from one of his books, and wrote in his journal about today’s events.  He’s very good at both.  He follows me around like Loucious!  Later we ate pizza and watched one of his videos.  Meanwhile, Y had a couple of friends over.  K and E were out all evening with friends/activities.  S spent some time gaming with a friend.  Right now I’m staying here with the kids while Avdi gets a break to eat out with Jess; then he’ll spend the night at home to be with S.

Not having to bake challah really freed up time to be in the garden.  I finished grass-seeding and then strawing the whole yard.  I should clarify less lawn, as I’ve been subtly expanding the native areas into the lawn, in my secret plan to take over the unnatural world.  Don’t worry, I’m leaving enough (improved) lawn for all you badminton fanatics.

I noticed spring beauty (Claytonia) and bluebells (Mertensia), not to mention violets, are cleverly infiltrating said lawn, assisting me in said secret plan.  Of course some exotic invasives like lesser celandine, the shiny yellow drifts, are seeing their advantage and insinuating themselves into everywhere, but it’s too late now to eliminate all evil.  I have faith that aggressive natives will eventually overrun the invading aliens from another world.  (It’s all one big metaphor.)

(In fact, if you read between the lines of all my garden tales, you’ll discover my “secret” rage against the whole unnatural, degenerate descent of our country into its logical hellish conclusion, but also my stubborn hope that natural justice will prevail.  But you already knew that, so back to friendly garden sappiness.)

While I was strewing straw, I top-dressed the future (any day now) strawberry bed, and its neighboring perennial veg/fruit beds.  Note the asparagus gone wild!  Obviously I will do more cleanup on those beds soon.  I also leaf-mulched some areas with the remaining leaves, so nothing goes to waste.  I weeded and straw-mulched the lilacs, which are looking happy.

In case you haven’t picked up on it, my ultimate goal is to manage, maintain, and improve upon the lovely mostly-native surroundings the previous owners left in our care, to create a healthy, balanced, welcoming habitat for beneficial co-evolved critters, plants, and people.  That is, a mini-MOBOT for Avdi and family/friends to enjoy and relax in.  Plus bonus things to eat!

I walked over propelled by the high winds, before rain resumed.  It was like an ephemeral wonderland over there.

The jacob’s ladder is starting to bloom pale blue-lavender amongst the bluebells.  Ferns are unfurling!  The asparagus spears are turning into tall ferny stems themselves; I decided to let them do their thing this year, to get stronger.  Trees are all decked out in finery.  Sadly, my lilacs are too tiny to bloom this year, but are doing well.  Poppies are growing in with ruellia (native petunia), so that ought to be colorful.  The comfrey is blooming blue.  The veg greens seedlings look happy.  Because I used compost in several beds, there are volunteer squash, melons, ? already started!  Nature is taking over!

I did go ahead and re-seed the lawn bare places by hand, since the ground is good and wet.  Today I’ll spread straw over it.

Second Pesach dinner was more traditional, but seasoned Middle Eastern: matzah balls, potato latkes, saffron rice, reinvented veggies with tomato, and all the fixin’s.  We weren’t as spirited this time, as Avdi is sick, Y is in one of his surly moods, E slept through it, and K took hers downstairs as usual.  I was tired out, but Loucious was just as motivated by food as usual.  Shabbat preps will seem easy by comparison: no bread-baking, and whatever suggests itself.

I think I guessed right about not doing seders this year, as you can see from some of the exhaustion and teen behavior.  It’s like F— this and F— you and F— everything!  Or reclusing.  Lots of extra hormonal attitudes and changes going on.  Having just the festive meals was challenging but worthwhile.  Some cultural atmosphere for continuity works better than forcing them to comply and hate it.  One day, after they get over this present turmoil, they’ll have some fond background memories, rather than resentment.

Also, after they progress from demanding instant gratification, they’ll start to understand how gardens and patience work!

It’s been pouring and t-storming, so all the plants are bursting out!  I spent yesterday cleaning and cooking : Indian chicken and vegetables, saffron basmati, fried homegrown (frozen) okra and jalapeños, and all the Pesach “fixin’s” and seder plate.  It came out really nicely.  Loucious was less impressed, because I wouldn’t play much frisbee with him out in the puddles!  But he got over it at dinnertime!

We had a full house, including Jess.  She and I got appropriately schnockered.  The kids (except K, who felt sick) seemed to have a good time, especially since we didn’t go through the whole ordeal.  Y couldn’t get enough of my award-winning charoset, because it’s simply the best.  Or maybe it was because it was schnockered as well, as I conveniently neglected to mention!  The kids like matzah, too.

Avdi and Jess insisted I get a ride home or stay, so he drove me home.  If the rain holds off until later, I may walk over, and start up all over again.  Tonight’s meal will be a little more traditional, with matzah balls in homemade chicken soup, potato latkes, and possibly the first ever asparagus from the garden!

As you can see, the bluebell drifts (and other ephemerals) are spectacular this year; I can’t get enough.  It looks like many of the flowers I planted are germinating, and the veg garden is starting to take off after the rain.  I’m hoping the “wetland” natives along the “woods edge” will do the same.  I have a good feeling about this growing season.

After all that denial, I managed to prep most of the foods for two evenings of Pesach in one day, with time left to lounge on the patio basking in the gorgeous spring evening with Loucious in his leaf pile.  I felt pretty accomplished.  It won’t be the conventional two seders and a banquet, but it will feature the basic symbolism and spirit of the holiday.  No one would have the time and energy right now to endure the whole Haggadah anyway, and my charoset is still the best (after it gets more schnockered).  What more can you want?

Eco-purists will have to bear with me on this one, because it features premature raking of huge piles of leaves to prepare for, gasp, grass-reseeding.  I know, but it has to be done.  I’m not the owner or renter.  And there are kids and a dog.

To my credit, I never bag, burn, or shred leaves while there may still be beneficial critters involved.  I relocate them all to areas that can use more leaf mulch, or the compost pile.  Nothing gets wasted.

Loucious loves leaf piles.  No sooner had I raked them into neat mountains, than he dove into them with his frisbee and proceeded to bury and unbury it and himself, undoing the pile in the process!  It was hilarious.

I also worked on cleaning up some of the beds that needed help so the new seedlings could find the surface.  As it gets closer to the last frost date, I’ve been direct-sowing hardy flowers into various beds.

I keep finding new ephemerals coming up, like yellow bellwort, white trout lily, spring beauty, solomon’s seal, mayapple, wild ginger, and many more.  Each one is exciting.  Of course my favorite is bluebells.  Ephemerals by definition are impermanent, so you love them while you can, but can’t hold on.  Again, thank you to the people who came before us and had this vision of habitat conservation.

There are also some noxious exotic invasives that are really taking over this year, but (again, purists look away) it’s not for me to kill myself trying and failing to eradicate them.  Some things must be put up with.  (Metaphor alert!)

Speaking of compromises, as you probably guessed, at the last minute I decided to at least attempt to honor Pesach with a couple of festive dinners and seder plate symbolisms.  I must if nothing else uphold my reigning charoset world title.  So off I go to make up for lost time.

This is how my mind works: the instant I got done publishing that confession, I started one of my infamous lists, this one for Pesach ingredients!  Not the whole Megillah, you should pardon the mixed metaphor, just the basics.  I’m talking extreme minimalism.  Not even kosher for ’26 matzah, because it’s hard to find nearby.  Just very broadly symbolic items for a seder plate and simple meals.  Probably no one will come, but it’s the intention that counts!

Also, I suspect most of the world doesn’t have the luxury or privilege of overpriced indulgences, or for that matter, even a roof under which to prepare lavish feasts, so why should we be pretentious?  If “slaves in Egypt” turns out to be a myth, then it’s all just symbolism, which ought to reflect real conditions, not affluence.  Also, I refuse to support any Israeli exporters.  Our Pesach meals might look more like Gaza refugees’ under Israeli terrorism, but that would be much more appropriate, IMHO.

So I lied?  No, I just rethought the matter, and decided I could easily do a short list and volunteer to make dinner those nights, which often happens anyway.  Just make it more festive and meaningful for whomever is able to be there.  No seder plans, just the basics, unless someone wants to do it.  So that’s where I’m at this moment.  Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion…

I think I need to be honest about Pesach this year.  I have a feeling that if I don’t say something, it could easily just slide by us and not even come up until too late.  And maybe I’d be responsible for that, because I kind of let it happen, but not because of laziness or apathy.

Normally I’d have been preparing for weeks, cleaning, switching out foods, and planning meals, with Avdi’s help, at least to the extent we observe it.  Instead, I’ve hesitated to even bring it up, one more demand on an already strained and overworked situation.  Avdi has too much to deal with right now to even think about it, talk about it, or be present for it, and the kids, similarly, are spread thin in every direction as it is, even for our minimal weekly Shabbat observance.

Maybe it’s not for me to decide how others may feel about it, but I sense the decision has already unintentionally made by reality.  And anyway, for whatever reasons, I’ve let it go too long to race to catch up by April 1st.  My conditioning makes me feel guilty and delinquent about this, and if I said nothing to address it until it came and went, I might indeed be responsible for letting people down, even if they’re too distracted to notice or to look forward to it.

I know this is unheard of for me, the first time in years Pesach may not happen, whether in spirit or practice, because I let it slide.  Partly, there hasn’t been an opportunity to even bring up the subject and all it entails, and also, for what it’s worth, I confess I’ve been feeling exhausted and not as up to it as before.  It is a lot, even if you have energy or don’t strictly observe the law or customs.  I’m just being honest and realistic here.  No one who matters is around to judge me or us, but I think I owe my son an apology, not excuses.

Of all years, this one ought to be the one we gather in community and solidarity against the evil forces afflicting our country and world, and remember that this too won’t last forever.  The current state of things has all of us tied up in knots trying to survive and protect the health and safety of our families and each other.  It’s hard to even find time to relax and celebrate.  It’s more like a precarious vigil all the time.  Not to mention affording it all and staying viable, avoiding the tipping point where it isn’t anymore.

So maybe this year is the exception, where the spirit of the holiday outweighs the extra stress it can cause to observe it.  Much about these times (“these latter days”) is exceptional and deviant.  I hope I can be forgiven.

Today reached 94º.  Tomorrow will be in the 40s and 50s.  Ephemerals are just blooming or unfurling, but it feels like summer.  They must be so confused.  I found one trout lily today!

I prepped and seeded more beds today, with perennials, natives, and an herb.  I got Y’s rock garden cleaned up and ready to get some part shade wildflowers.  Every bed has little mystery seedlings coming up.  Still no sign of the woods edge natives that I planted last fall, but I still have hope.

Loucious had a lot of fun diving at the hose sprayer.  He’s obsessed!  He and I were soaked.  It turns out he’s also a fire-howler!  Fire trucks with sirens going by set him to bellowing.  It was the funniest sound.