Today was wind-down day.  Tomorrow Avdi gets back.

I finished raking leaves and debris and dumping them onto Debris Mountain behind the shed; it’s almost as high as the shed!

I watered all the new plantings, and finished marking the rows and paths in the veg garden.  It’s looking vegelicious.  I planted the leftover horseradish roots from Pesach over by the asparagus bed, which means the holiday is basically over.

I took lots of flower and plant photos.  The irises just started blooming!!  Soon the whole front yard will be filled with them.  I included more bluebells because they’re sadly starting to fade, and I want them to be remembered.  The sage is blooming!

I’m calling it.  Pesach was good, all things considered, but Dayenu!  Enough!  To next year with family in STL!

The veg garden is now unofficially almost filled, aside from the tomatoes and peppers, which can’t come outside quite yet.

I planted two final rows of mixed lettuces and greens, finishing out that side.  I cultivated the area surrounding the veggies in preparation for tomato and pepper plants.  I marked out all the paths and sections with wood strips.  It’s looking like a genuine veg patch.

Then I planted some more herbs in their respective beds, including some extra misticanza greens mix in the perennial herb bed, and prepped a space for the basils when they come outside.  Finally, I watered in everything extra well.

Next, I cleaned out and dumped a lot of recycle and trash from the garage, and took the bins out to be collected.

Finally, I worked on raking up more leaves and debris piles and dumping them on the compost.  I can’t do that job for long before I start choking and sneezing and wheezing!  But I did make progress.

Naturally, there are yet more natives and plants needing their pictures taken.  Every day I’m newly impressed and pleasantly surprised by the diversity of wonderful natives the former residents planted.  It looks like a woodland and wetland meadow.  It’s almost like someone knew I was coming and planted all my favorite ephemerals and woodland plants.

I’m not really looking forward to returning to my sterile, garden-less apartment.  I’ll probably just walk here every day I can!

Tonight’s meal is mama mia’s special secret pasta sauce and meatballs with homegrown herbs in the slow cooker, spaghetti, and Mediterranean veggies.  If it’s anything like my other meals, K will devour it.  I’m happy to see he’s eating well, and mostly getting enough sleep.  We all seem to share the insomnia gene.

I’m starting to wind down on the long list of projects I set out to do here.  It may not sound like much to some people, but I feel a sense of accomplishment, knowing Avdi will come home to a beautiful productive garden and somewhat cleaner house.  (Priorities!)  I feel more familiar and comfortable staying here, and K and I seem to have a good, working routine.  When the kids arrive, I think I’ll be more integrated and familiarized with my role.

I’m a garden steamroller, baby.  I’m was on a real roll today.

I transplanted a lot of radishes to planters for Jess, which opened up lots of room to plant lettuce seedlings, which I did next.

Then I collected and potted up the list of herbs for J’s future herb garden.

Then I finished direct-sowing around the outside of the veg garden: two kinds of cantaloupe, two kinds of pumpkin, and two kinds of winter squash.

Then I brought out the final flat of lettuces to the porch to harden off and get bigger.

Then I watered everything.

Then I raked up some more of my piles of leaves and debris from the yard, and composted it.  Still a ways to go on that. Here are some flowers in lieu of piles of debris.

Then I went downstairs and planted another flat of assorted tomatoes, peppers, and one eggplant, so I’ll have enough to both pot up for Jess’s porch and supplement ours.

Later I improvised an outdoor moveable cage for Percy so he could catch some rays without supervision.  (I think K was bemused by the setup, but it’s my sneaky way of getting Percy outside and K being responsible for bringing him back in when it’s time.  My evil plan worked.)

Now it’s time to make dinner, which will be matzah-meal breaded fried tilapia, roasted sweet potato fries, and green beans.

Am I a machine of industry or what?

Another first!  I drove J’s car to a store to pick up some food items for K, then to my apartment to check in.  I dropped off and picked up stuff, including plants for Avdi’s, one of which was the latest hydroponic herb, oregano, which I potted.

It was weird being in my apartment after all this time; I felt like a stranger passing through.  Driving a couple of miles there and back seems like no big deal, but for me it’s like getting back in the saddle again.

I drove back to Avdi’s where I seem to live now (!), and got back in the garden.  I planted the cucumber, watermelon, and asparagus seedlings in their respective locations.  I mixed up more soil mix for later potting of herbs and veggies for J.  I hoed weeds around the veg perimeter.  And I watered everything in.

Lots more native flowers are coming out, like phlox, jack-in-the pulpit, native coral honeysuckle, trillium, and tree flowers like an impressionist painting against the sky.

Later, I made a Mexican dinner for K with all the trimmings.  I even got to talk to some of the other Gkids online.  I feel so domesticated.

It’s good for me to sometimes be stretched out of my element.

Today K and I spent the day with Jess’s family for Easter.  We dyed the eggs, which was fun and colorful, then hid them, and the kids found them.  Then J and I deviled them, while Eric cooked up one of his famous meals, this time bowtie lasagna with lots of herbs.  K really enjoyed the eggs!

I got my doggy fix with a very friendly golden retriever who was walking his humans, plus of course my cat fix with Odin, who was decadently luxuriating on R’s bed, and Pixie, who was hiding up in the warm attic after her little walk outside on her harness and leash.

After cleaning up, and talking with J, everyone but me played video games.  That’s one activity I haven’t warmed up to yet, having grown up without gaming, but that’s OK.  K. was having a good time with everyone, which is the main point.

Last but not least, I accomplished another first–driving K and me home in J’s car, which she’s loaning me while she’s away at a conference in Philly with Avdi.  I did not run over one person or squirrel!  Tomorrow I may drive to my apartment to check on things, and come back.

Bonus–J and I came up with a few small garden projects for her!  I’ll make her a small herb bed with some of the extra herbs I’ve grown, sow some wildflowers in her yard, plant some tomatoes, etc. in pots for her porch, and transplant some of the excess radishes from A’s garden into planters for her.  That also solves the problem of the redundant herb plants and radishes taking up room I need for lettuces.

So that was a day well spent.  Back at home, here are some tulips and trillium from this morning.

This is how I “don’t do work” on Shabbat.  To me gardening is zen, not work.  (On the other hand, cleaning a bathroom is work–except when I do it!  It smells and looks clean, that’s what counts.  Theoretically.  Not saying I did that.)

So, in the spirit of not work, I cut out all the evil invasive honeysuckle bushes I could find.  While at it, I cleaned out all the dead sticks and then raked out all the beds in the yard, front and back.  (Still not working.)  The whole time I was discovering new natives planted by the former residents.  I really like these mystery persons.  It’s how I always imagined a yard of my own, but never stayed anywhere long enough to achieve it.

Then I had the brilliant idea of taking a soak out back.  That is, I opened up the water valve in the basement that turns on the leaky outdoor spigot, to which I had attached the hose.  Big Spew!  Just to get near it I took a whole shower!  The newly planted beds got some, too.  So that was refreshing.  Valve closed, and staying that way for now.

Consider: plants (and animals) are always at work, even on Shabbat, growing, photosynthesizing, obtaining nutrients, and producing.  I’m sure the raging sages don’t have much to say about that.  Speaking of animals, I encountered a gigantic rabbit in the bushes out back.  I wonder if there are babies.  I wonder if rabbits like radishes!  (Update: yes!  Heheh, I have an evil plan.)

No work is in evidence in the following photos.

I didn’t have to bake challah this week because of Pesach, so that freed me up to do more gardening!  I did prepare a slow cooker Mexican-style chicken with fresh veggies, and a potato casserole using up the latkes as a base.  Compared to the last two days, it’s a very simple meal.  K. misses my challah!

I got a lot down outside.  I added mixed annual flowers to the ones I sowed yesterday, so that patio bed will be a rainbow of cutting flowers.  I planted some deep pink morning glories at the base of the front arbor.  I cleared out a whole section along the side fence in the backyard and planted mixed gladioli and sunflowers.  It’s going to get colorful around here.

That was just a warmup.  I brought out a couple more flats of seedlings to harden off on the back porch (where the mixed flowers are sown): cucumbers, watermelon, asparagus, and assorted lettuces and herbs.  Then I tackled my big project, clearing the jungle of weeds surrounding the veg garden so I can plant larger veggies there.

First I mowed it all down to the ground.  What an improvement.  Then I weeded, raked, and cultivated it.  Then I sowed pole beans, zucchini, and yellow crookneck and straight neck squashes along the fence.  Next time, I’ll sow cantaloupes and plant the watermelon seedlings.  Inside the fence I’ll plant the cucumbers.  I’ve left room for the tomato and pepper seedlings, and more lettuces.

And of course here are some obligatory flower photos!

Later… I made this feast of latkes and sides for just the two of us, and K. was complementing me on all the things, while enthusiastically going at it.  He even opted to finish eating at the table, not downstairs at his screen as usual, because, as he said, “This is too good of a meal to not eat at the table!”  The ultimate compliment!  It makes it all worthwhile.

We even did a science experiment at the table, seeing if we could set matzah on fire with the candles, and if it tastes any better. Conclusion: No, and No.  I told him it’s like drywall (fire-resistant and tasteless).  Toasting it does not improve the flavor.  But we had fun trying.

I asked if he wished he had been able to go to PA, but he said he’s glad he’s here where it’s peaceful, and not in PA having to deal with all the kid frenzy (paraphrasing).  I guess we have a pretty good thing going on.

Apropos of nothing, I did discover that none of us really likes radishes–also that guinea pigs shouldn’t eat them because they’re semi-toxic!  That should tell you something.  So what was I thinking planting row upon row of radishes?!  I must have lost my mind.  Lesson learned.  Just because you’re supposed to plant a vegetable in theory doesn’t mean you have to!  Radishes are like some people–pretty, as a garnish, but bitey, tasteless, and pointless.

I had this drink…some kind of Serbian pear brandy, to which I added a fancy maraschino cherry to try to improve it.  No comment.  It looks prettier than it tastes.  (Kind of like radishes!)  Pesach “drinks” suck!

All in all, a very fine and worthwhile day.

Last night was a beautiful full moon, which I took a picture of early this morning.  It was so bright out, I think it woke me up.

It being the first day of Pesach didn’t stop me from being a whirlwind of activity, inside and out.  I did laundry, changed the beds, swept floors, cleaned out the fridge and freezer and organized them (there were some evolving science “projects” in there!), prepared food for tonight (second “Seder”), made Percy his salad as promised, reorganized all my seeds, and that was me just getting started.  Then I went out back to garden!

I planted two kinds of nasturtiums in the middle of each annual herb bed, a mix of beneficial flowers in the remaining patio bed (marigolds, calendula, and zinnias),  the rest of the greens and lettuces I had been hardening off on the patio in the veg garden, three kinds of onion seed in the next row, and finished prepping the future asparagus patch with amendments.

Then of course I took photos of more flowers, including, wait for it, bluebells!.

This evening’s dinner will be potato latkes with sour cream and apple sauce, other Pesach Seder side dishes, and a salad (tested and approved of by Percy).  Speaking of seal of approval, I should mention K. loves my charoset, even though it’s merely “adequate”, so that was a big compliment.

Pretty festive for an un-Seder, wouldn’t you say?  All the basics are represented.  K. even requested one of the essential elements, which pleased me.  The flowers are upgraded to fancy.  I made matzah ball soup.  My charoset is…adequate.  For some reason I’m drinking slivovitz, do not ask why.  I just wish my son could be here, but he is in spirit.  I’m representing for us all.

If you look closely at the nest on top of the front door light, you’ll see a robin!  (And lots of redbuds.)