The garlic is starting to poke through the leaves!
Not surprisingly, it seems the cloves I planted that had already sprouted are the first to reach the surface. Four of them are up.
This makes me happy.
Some of the lettuce and arugula seeds I planted have sprouted. Too soon to tell which is which.
Looks like a May Queen lettuce has popped up, from a seed I probably planted in the summer. And my lone Crispino is hanging in there.
The last farmers’ market of the season was yesterday. F and I scooped up green beans, sweet potatoes, Golden Delicious apples, cheddar cheese, crackers, mac and cheese and some pastries. No more market til May 🥺
We all had some social engagements this weekend. Otherwise, I was mostly cleaning, organizing, and decluttering. We get a lot of packages delivered here by mistake, since we share an address with a nearby office building. I found some new homes for some of the recent misdirected packages. Really kind of unfair that I have to declutter stuff that I didn’t even bring in here! I also dropped off some of the boys’ old clothes for my nephews.
Overall, ever since Friday night I’ve been feeling like I’m in vacation mode already and it feels quite nice. I do have to work tomorrow through Wednesday, but am able to work from home.
Rocco and I took a walk both days. The weather was mild and mostly cloudy.
Today I raked some leaves to add to the compost, and I managed to get part of our Christmas lights up — the earliest I’ve ever done it. I am committed to not buying any holiday decor this year. Not that I ever run out and buy a lot, but I will usually buy new lights if needed, new extension cords, or decor from the thrift shop. This year I’m trying to spend zero.
I’d say the highlight of the whole weekend came when I sat down to read about what I can use to line my new-to-me planter. I don’t know what kind of wood was used in this seemingly homemade planter, so I want to line it to keep any potential bad chemicals from leaching into the soil. After looking at some liners I could buy and what constitutes food-safe plastic, it hit me: couldn’t I use food-safe plastic I already have on hand, like cereal bags? Well, I think so. We’ll find out. Am I the cheapest gardener alive? Could be.
In economic news, we had open enrollment at work and my health insurance premiums are going up — something like $30-40 per pay, I think. I should double check. So that’s fun.
I also took a look at T’s college costs to date — I’ve been paying them out of savings and trying to pay myself back. But apparently I’ve only been able to pay myself about 16% of the total cost for this semester, and with Christmas next month, it’s unlikely I’ll pay more. The good news is that he wants to live at home next semester (whew).
T came home from school needing to urgently get his hands on a suit. I pointed him toward the one I just bought for N, for homecoming, and luckily it fit him.
I did have a bit of impulse spending yesterday: F and I popped in to local small business Occasionette so I could buy the candles I like from Paddywax (made in the USA and smell great!). One small Pumpkin Spice for now and a bigger Wassail and Spice for later.
Candles are a necessity for me as we go into the darkest of the dark days.
Meals this week:
Monday: Spaghetti Bolognese
Tuesday: Scrambled eggs, sausage, potatoes O’Brien, toast
Wednesday: PJ’s restaurant
Thursday: scrounge: I had buffalo chicken naan pizza from Wegmans
Friday: more scrounge: leftover potatoes O’Brien and sausage, plus eggs, for me; F had ditalini in chicken broth
Saturday: out for our anniversary
Sunday: out with my parents
I managed to pack lunch on Friday.
My recurring garden dream struck again one night this week. Once again, I was in the back yard of my childhood home on 44th street. I realized that there were pumpkin leaves at my feet. Leaning down, I realized there were all these pumpkins tucked under the leaves: big ones that were a pale orange, and then all these little ones that were rotten and falling apart. As always, I was delighted to find a harvest I didn’t know about.
I suspect that this dream represents my recent attempts to learn more about SEO and increasing traffic to the blog. It seems kind of hard, and I think the dream means I wish I could just skip ahead to reaping the benefits without doing any work…
Garden State of Mind 
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