Happy Mother’s Day. My goal was to actually do very little today, and I succeeded. I slept quite late, and after that I just puttered in the garden and did a little bit of downtown shopping with my daughter, at the newest consignment shop (bought nothing). We ordered pizza for dinner. I did stop by my mom’s and we swapped little gifts (including three freshly picked heads of lettuce for her).
Saturday was a different story. I was up early taking F. to softball, which meant I was at the farmers’ market at 7:56 am, a new record for me.
A local foster group had three playpens of kittens at the market. If I didn’t have to go through the whole adoption process — if they would have just plopped one in my arms — I would have taken it right home. Any one of them. Or all of them. I settled for sticking $5 in their donations jar.
Back at home, I cleaned up the yard in preparation for weed whacking and mowing (which Tom and I did today) and sprayed the onions and garlic with neem oil, since the thrips seem to be back again and doing some damage. I also realized that something is eating my green strawberries. These, for instance, are now gone:
So I hopped right on Amazon and ordered the mesh bags that go on each cluster (I had a $50 GC, a birthday gift). They came today and I put some on. Hope the berries still grow OK! I also realized that quite a few of the developing berries are messed up, whether from frost or something else.
Despite these gloomy findings, it was still great to be outside on such a nice morning (in the 60s). And the sage is blooming!
Today, I saw on Facebook that someone was giving away big planters, so I had T stop and grab some on his way home from the store. These ought to take care of my tomatoes and beans. I knew some free ones would come along!
Speaking of tomatoes: what a drama. All those seedlings I started out with and now I’m down to two. When I gave the bulk of them away, I was left with four. Two just wilted and died. Another got destroyed by a softball pitch, but I saved the stem and it is now growing in soil again. So that and the last one are now out in the shed. T. moved the giant tub of dirt that the last one is in out there for me. During the day the door is propped open; at night, I am running a space heater out there, on low. So far, they seem to be OK. Another couple days of this and I should be able to plant them outside. Next year I am not starting tomato seeds til March!
I got a lot done in the garden during the week as well: transplanted parsley and marjoram (which the squirrels dug up, but I replanted); potted on everything that was still in a small cup to something bigger. I replaced the remaining bolting arugula with onions, and harvested and replaced more lettuce. I also planted more beans, as the sprouts I had got eaten. Wednesday night was lovely and warm, and the sunset was pretty.
Thursday afternoon, I got to catch most of F’s softball game. Saturday, T and I drove to look at a possible car for him… He needs wheels pretty badly. He moved out of his dorm room Friday night. Hard to believe his first year of college is over! I’m glad to have him back with us. He secured a full-time summer job. Meanwhile N. needs to sign up for his behind-the-wheel hours. Soon we’ll have another driver.
Salad continued to figure heavily in this week’s meals:
Monday: leftover marinated chicken breast, leftover salad, leftover baked mac n cheese. Tom made chicken salad with some of the chicken.
Lunch was leftovers too.
F actually ate salad at dinner, a first, I think.
Tuesday: taquitos, taco salad, regular salad
Wednesday: Stouffer’s baked chicken alfredo, plus steamed broccoli
I froze the remaining chicken and mac n cheese at that point.
Thursday: defrosted marinated chicken and salad
Friday: Osaka (sushi, fried rice)
Saturday: Sprouts’ BBQ pulled pork and carnitas, plus baked potatoes and sweet potatoes. I had my carnitas with shredded garden lettuce and guacamole salsa.
Sunday: pizza
I wanted to bake cookies or maybe a strawberry cake this weekend, but it didn’t happen.
I’d say the only bummer about this weekend was that zero painting happened. I am bound and determined to finish it next weekend, by myself if I need to, and even if it means (gasp) no gardening.
I told the foster puppy people that we are “in” for June. So any house projects definitely have to be done by then…
Garden State of Mind 
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