leaves

This is what was picked this evening, winter lettuce. Leah picked some yummy radishes for me last week. The peppers and tomatoes are in. The carrots and onions look like carrots and onions. The peas are as tall as the fence. That's my garden update.

Almost forgot. Plant your tomato plants when the oak tree puts out its leaves. Oaks don't like frost, so they are the last tree to leaf. Tomatoes don't like frost either. Our oak got its leaves on April 15. Jess waited a week to plant the tomatoes. He trusted the weather people more than the tree. It did get cold, but did not frost. The tree was right.

I can...

hold my head up and blow bubbles.

finished growing

I woke this morning to discover a published post. "Who did this?" Jesse soon confessed. But I wasn't done! So, here is the rest.

The spring lettuce is 4" tall. There are turnips in front of it with greens a foot high. They were planted in the fall and began to go to flower. Jess harvested some turnips today. They of course were nothing like this, but still tasty in soup.

Also in the ground is mint, carrots, over two dozen strawberry plants, radishes, more turnips and our peas. The mint and strawberries are transplants and look like something. The peas are doing splendidly - 5" tall and sturdy. Everything else is two little leaves popping up out of the soil.

In the sun room are tomatoes, basil and thyme. They aren't ready for the outdoors yet. In the plans are peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, pumpkin and watermelon.

There, now you know what is going on in our garden. Go get digging! (Unless you are Lydia. ;)

How does your garden grow?

1/3 of last year's garden

winter lettuce

spring lettuce

Numerous friends have asked how and when we garden. First, I don't. Well, I guess you could say I am the planner, not the planter. I have a say on what goes into the ground and where. Jesse and the kids do all the rest. I have bragging rights too. =) He uses Square Foot Gardening, (but the 1981 version) The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, (again, the old one is on our shelf) and his love for the earth/experience growing up. Now this is being passed on to our children, and I love it.

The spring lettuce went into the ground the beginning of March. It had the cold frame around it for the first few weeks. Now it is frame free and tall.

the sky is falling

no. really. I got up this morning to find part of the kitchen ceiling on the floor. The ceiling does not belong on the floor. However, a square foot of it fell onto a chair and shattered. Pieces were everywhere. I heard it in the night, like someone rattling a door with glass in it, but I told myself it was the wind blowing branches against a window so I did not have to get up and check the doors. Nope. It was the ceiling falling.

And I knew it was coming. Not exactly, but Jess and I wondered what would happen this time. He is in Chicago right now, attending the MPSA conference. He's gone for the last nine years, except for when we had a two day old baby, (David). Every year, something happens, something odd, something out of the ordinary, something that takes us by surprise. The first year, I went with him. I was four weeks pregnant with Sarah and did not feel well. We stayed with cousins twice removed. On our drive we kept noticing ants in the car. Odd. As I straightened our room the first morning, I kept killing ants. Surprising. I traced them - to Jesse's computer. I ran it out to the patio and sat and stared in amazement as an entire colony of ants moved out of Jesse's computer to find a new life in the suburbs of Chicago. Another year our cottage was infested with swarming termites, looking for a new place to call home. Hundreds of thousands of termites flying in your living room is out of the ordinary. Then there was our salivating dog. At the time we had Kasey, our Golden. She came in drooling like mad. The poor thing kept pawing at her mouth as her head lay in a pool of saliva. The not so smart emergency vet thought maybe she was stung by a bee and gave me motion sickness pills for her. The knowledgeable nurse said she'd heard of this happening to dogs when catching toads. Both out of the ordinary and scary. The only other time I went with Jesse we stayed at a not so many starts hotel and David and Sarah were with us. I again was tired and VERY cranky (or bitchy, whichever you prefer). We discovered a month later that I was almost three months pregnant with Leah. Surprise! Poison ivy, illnesses, driving on donuts, and now the ceiling. What's next?

walk (and poop)

So, if you happened to be driving through Larchmont this evening and saw this:

crazy mama walking down the sidewalk, two children springing and racing ahead of her, one child lagging behind her, yet another child in a sling, (Yes, they are all mine. WHEN will people stop asking that?? That and that my hands are full. Never an offer to help. Just a reminder, in case I forgot. My response is, "Yes, full of love." and we continue on our merry way. Sorry. I did not intend for my two least favorite comments to come out in the middle of this. Where was I? oh...) and a sweet Sheltie on a leash who is convinced that since he was not walked last night a myriad of dogs must have walked HIS route and he needs to sniff them all out and therefore be dragged or rather coaxed along, all trying to race the rain home and getting damp in the process

then you saw me. But the dog pooped by a kind, elderly man's tree, (nightly ritual he's had for forever - go poop on a night walk - the dog, not the man.) Not on the rug in the kids' room, so it was all worth it.

There, I posted. It feels good, great actually. There is so much I want to get up here, but Anna just pooped, so I gotta' go.