Meteorology in STL is never half-assed.  After high winds, loud hail, more tornado threats, and thunderous storms, we have lots more natives budding out, all my garden plantings are watered, and it’s pleasantly warm and wet out, like a wetland.  I heard tree frogs yesterday.  Hopefully it will clear up and turn into a nice “summer” day for Avdi’s long trip, and K’s week here.

This morning I went through the symbolic motions of burning the chametz, setting up the Seder plate, matzah, and Pesach table, and feeding Avdi little samples so he wouldn’t feel like he missed out on the action.

Not that there will be any.  I’m afraid most of the action will be at Avdi’s end, and not necessarily of the festive kind.  He’ll be driving, herding kids, then working hard giving a presentation at a conference in Philly with J.  They’ve been preparing all week, and judging from the outbursts and expletives, it’s been…challenging!  I wish them much success.  I think I got the easy end of the job.

First, a correction: I think the little white native is Erythronium albidum, white trout lily, not Dodecatheon, shooting star, though they look very similar.  Here it is, opening up:

This next one isn’t a native, it’s a spring bulb–I think it’s Leucojum.  And here’s the first tulip of the season, in Avdi’s favorite color.

Next we have a ubiquitous native, Claytonia, spring beauty, tiny but lovely, and even more ubiquitous violets, which are covering the yard.

Here is a Pesach bouquet.  I remember this same time of year in the NE, scrounging for anything blooming in time for Pesach.  Here in MO, it’s just a matter of going out back and choosing from all the options on this summery day.  It was already 75 degrees early this morning.  It got into the 80s!  In early April!

This next one snuck in here stealthily, trying to pose as a native!  (Psych!–I voted in our latest local election.)

Much later…I think I outdid myself my first day out on the garden project.  I got on a roll and just kept on going until I was exhausted.

First I cleaned out and amended all the patio raised beds with a mix of garden soil, compost/manure, and some sand.  I started planting the herb beds (annual and perennial), leaving room for more of same plus later edible flower seeds.  I planted a section with insect-beneficial wildflowers, and one of mint.

I dug up and potted the potato plant, to make room for future cucumbers (they don’t like potatoes).  I planted a row of brassicas and other greens seedlings in the veg garden.

I prepared a permanent section (nothing to show yet) of the strawberry/prickly pear bed for planting asparagus seedlings (which are also perennials).  I weeded and watered and possibly left myself enough work for the rest of my stay!  Just kidding, there’s a ton more to do.  Though I may have already earned my keep!

Jess and Avdi were working hard all day here while I was gardening.  From all the expletives, and stress they’re under,  I suspect I may have had the better work day!

Stay tuned to more episodes of In My Element.

I am now officially encamped at Avdi’s for the duration.  He’s at J’s for the night, then he’ll be winding down here for the next day or so, and embarking upon his journey, while I hold down the fort with K.  I’m already scoping out the garden and planning my strategy.  I hope to have it planted, productive, and pretty by the time he gets back.

The few plants left at my apartment, like my orchid in full bloom, and some younger hydroponic and other herb seedlings, are self-sustaining for now.  Basically the operation and production have shifted to Avdi’s for the season.

I noticed the rest of the root veggies (parsnips, rutabaga) and leeks are showing in the veg garden.  Also this is where all the exciting native action is happening.  Did I mention bluebells?!  I think I saw a white shooting star (Dodecatheon), I’ll look closer tomorrow.  And the redbuds are in full bloom.

This is going to be Garden Central for the next week and a half.  Resistance is Futile.  Expect updates.

Today was full of firsts.  First, Jess took me out practice-driving her car, so I could have wheels while they’re away.  I passed my test!  Like jumping back on the bike.

I brought the rest of the herbs and greens over to Avdi’s, to plant while he’s gone.  While at it, I took some more photos.  (Can you tell I can’t get enough of bluebells?)

Then, A&J dropped me off at the CRC Mitzvah Farm spring planting event, where I got to meet lots of fellow volunteer gardeners all planting hundreds of collards to provide greens to the neighborhood.  It was fun and productive, getting to know people from many backgrounds, and working together for a good cause.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Avdi’s for all of Pesach while he’s away in PA with the kids.  I’ll have plenty of gardening to keep me off the streets.  And a loaner car in case I need to get on the streets.

Last night another so-called tornado bullet was dodged, I’m relieved to report.  I guess I’d better get used to this.  People here pretty much ignore it and proceed with the status quo.  The Midwestern way.

Yesterday I apparently even outdid myself on the challah, according to A&K, the experts.  It was so pillowy and fluffy, it would have made excellent bedding.

Out in the garden, more great native surprises are emerging, such as mayapples.  I love how they unfurl.  I noticed some VA bluebells blooming white.  And the variegated trillium are always fascinating.

I spent the night at my apartment.  Today I did all the Pesach seder plate preps  (charoset, etc.), even though we’re not officially doing seders this year.  At least I can go through the motions.  I concede the charoset award to my brother Robert, as I’ve graduated to challah nirvana.

I also got most of my remaining herbs and greens ready to transport to Avdi’s, including the latest hydroponic basil potted up.  My mission to grow plants for Avdi’s garden is mostly accomplished.  This week while housesitting, I’ll work on installing the hardier ones out back.  My work is cut out for me.

Before I get too preoccupied with cooking and baking, a quick review of yesterday.

I brought over more herbs and the latest flat of salad greens to their respective locations.  Then I direct-sowed some collards in the veg garden.  I weeded the peas, then did some more cleanup of the future herb beds.  Lastly, I took some flower photos.

I met a wonderful gentle giant pit/Amer. bulldog mix, Jean, walking his girl out front.  A totally friendly teddy bear as is typical of those breeds.  I got my doggy-fix, and it made my day.  It doesn’t take much.

I lit a yahrzeit memorial candle for my father, who died this month in 2010.  It’s the first one I’ve lit in STL, at Avdi’s.

It rained hard overnight, and now it’s a beautiful spring day outside my window.

It’s been uphill, but I think I’m emerging from that latest round of blech.  It takes a concerted effort to feel more like a normal human.

To that end, I did some laps, I ate some of my latest craving, a blue cheese salad, I found ways to be productive.  I even found myself a dentist, finally.  So relieved about that.  One piece at a time, I’m trying to reassemble myself and resist entropy.

Later I’ll take another load of plants over to Avdi’s and spend the night.  Tomorrow will be the last Shabbat (and challah) before Pesach.  I’m hoping possible threatened tornadoes don’t blow us away.

Obviously not much to report.  Probably a good thing.  Here are random photos.

Yesterday I totally made up for some lost time.  I still wasn’t feeling all there from the meds, but nevertheless I got busy, starting with some laps, the first in weeks, just to get some oxygen into my blood and possibly brain.

Then Avdi came over, we caught up on some business items to be done, and then we went on a Pesach shopping spree.  We stocked up on basics and Pesach items, and also picked up some seeds and soil amendments at Lowes, and hauled it all home.

At Avdi’s, I worked on garden tasks.  I cleaned up and reorganized the seedlings in the prop lab downstairs, to ready them for rotation out to the garden soon.  I took all the mature lettuces, herbs, and wildflowers to sheltered beds on the back porch, to start hardening them off.  While there, I noticed all the new seedlings coming up in the veg garden–carrots, beets, turnips, and the rest of the peas and spinach.

The native flowers and others were really exploding out there–it was a pleasure to take it all in and explore.  The masses of Virginia bluebells starting to bloom are especially gratifying.  And trillium! And it’s just the beginning.  I love these former, as yet unmet residents, who had such an obvious appreciation for restoring native plants into the landscape.  I look forward to talking shop with them one day.  In the meantime, I will faithfully help maintain what they have created.

On the way home, A and K and I ate questionable burgers and these ridiculously huge root beer floats at Hi- Pointe Drive-In, or tried to.  It was my first so-called meal since being indisposed, and it may not have been the ideal call, as it reminded me all night long!

Today was a big day for hydroponix!  The Thai basil and sage had outgrown their space on deck, and the root systems were like something out of a Japanese mutant monster movie!  So I carefully, surgically extracted them and potted them up.  I’m a proud hydroponix mother.

It’s about time I got my act together and get back on this wagon!  I’m a little dazed and lightheaded from this prednisone (speed on steroids!), but the rash seems to be fading, and I even got back on some semblance of normal sleep and eating.  Not quite ready for the laps yet.  More like a lapse thereof.  I did some pre-Pesach kitchen cleaning and sorting, though.

Back in my old life, I’d be living half-outdoors by now, just grokking the fulness and reveling in ephemerals and micro-signs of new life.  This unnatural, sanitized lifestyle was the price I was willing to pay for the freedom of choosing life over resignation.  I would never take it back.  It’s just another form of adaptation for survival.

Still.  Some days I’m like a caged critter, going a little off in the head.  Even tame dogs can’t stay sane in a cage indefinitely.

I know long days in Avdi’s garden are still ahead of me.  And probably other people’s gardens as well.  The opportunities are there, if I can just get myself back.  These setbacks threw me off, slow me down, but I won’t let them set me a new lower bar or benchmark.  If anything, it makes me more determined to overcome them.  I just need to pace myself.  After all, I have to build up energy reserves for the coming Gkid invasion, the other reason I came here.

I almost wonder if all these mysterious symptoms could be partly an effect of decades of neglecting my own health and sanity to caregive for everyone else and their baggage, and the resulting backlog of stored tension and anxiety caught up with me in the form of physical ailments.  So moving here was a chance to catch up on my rehab, before I jump back into the caregiving game.  Just conjecturing.

Like I said, lightheaded.  Just indulge me.

Here is hydroponic sage and basil going berserk, and a scene from yesterday evening kicking back with the Skullies.  You could call it “Sage and Spirit” (for all you DeadHeads).

The last few days have been surreal and not pretty.  As if I didn’t have afflictions enough, the final day of my antibiotic meds I woke up covered in a hideous, itchy rash from head to almost foot.  Yes, a new, different rash.  Nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

The next 24 hours are just a blur of wrestling with my bed in utter discomfort.  Not to exaggerate.  I’d hoped I could ride it out and not ask for help.  I was wrong.

So yesterday Avdi was kind enough to take time-a lot of time-out of his busy schedule to get me to the Total Access Urgent Care, the next most convenient place when the first Dr. appointment I could get was for late May.  This involved getting on the queue, which turned out to take all day, and spend much of it lying down at Avdi’s, since they don’t let you in until your turn gets close.  I know it had to inconvenience Avdi, but as always he was very gracious about it, and worked around me.

Finally, hours later, I got in to see someone, and then more hours while various personnel got around to examining and treating me.  Again, a mystery, but it could be a delayed allergic reaction to the sulfa drugs (IKR?  Avdi and I were like, do they actually still have those?  Weren’t they from back when I was a little cave person and that’s all they had?)  Lesson learned.  So they gave me another steroid shot in the butt, and a prednisone prescription (more steroid).  This time I was sentient enough to fill it at CVS for free, with my insurance.   What seemed like days later, Avdi finally dropped me home.

I got basically no sleep again last night, tossing and turning in discomfort, and that’s before starting the med, so I finally just got up and read.  Just now I ate and took my first dose, which is supposed to turn me into The Great Cornholio, with more insomnia.  If it takes away this Plague, I’ll be glad to go sleepless a few more nights.

Forgive the inexcusable symptom-spewing, something I despise and avoid in other oldsters!  Since you, my long-suffering 2.5 readership, have probably moved on by now, this is still basically just a forum for me to journal (talk to myself in “legit” form).  The scintillating diary of dying, woo.  It truly is a bitch.  But not as bad as the real deal, so they say.

In better news, look what finally bloomed while I was MIA–my orchid!  And look at these hydro- babies!  I think they’re reaching the “Period Of Prosperous”!  Soon I’ll start to pot them and start new seedlings of my harder-to-grow herbs.