Garden State of Mind

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  • Kicking Off May

    Two big events down, two more to go. The Boston trip is complete and today we hosted the softball team for dinner. Next up I have a wedding on 5/23 and my parents’ 50th anniversary party on 5/30. Yesterday was also my birthday but I’m happy for that to not be a big event, thank…

  • Blame It on Boston

    I missed my usual weekend post because I was getting ready for a work trip to Boston. I fly home tomorrow after 2.5 days of training and socializing. Got some cool pictures from our rooftop venue tonight: This is my fourth trip to Boston, but the last time was more than 20 years ago. Definitely…

  • Works in Progress

    A lot of things are half-finished right now, but that’s OK (I tell myself): My mosaic flowerpot: My living room walls: The garden, of course, is the ultimate forever work in progress. So there’s supplies and drop cloths and crap everywhere, but at least things are happening! Soooo exciting to paint over the mauve walls.…

  • On a Rampage

    This might be the spring break that broke me. Physically, that is. The kids were off this past week and so I took off on Friday, as well as today (had to pick a parent up from a procedure). These were my lists on Friday morning: As my husband said about an hour later, “I…

  • One Mode After Another

    I’ve been thinking about how I seem to pass from mode to mode. Picture a Venn diagram with circles that overlap to some degree. One of the circles, perhaps the largest, is “survival mode.” In survival mode, the cheapest option wins. Eat at home, hobbies can’t cost money, entertainment needs to be free or cheap.…

  • Growing Tomatoes (Indeterminate) in Zone 7b

    Republishing for spring 2026. It’s not too late to start tomato seeds! Tomatoes! Nearly every year, I grow more tomatoes than anything else. Enough to make gallons of sauce and to give them away in free piles outside my house. Indeterminate tomatoes are those that vine and sprawl all over. Determinate ones have neat and…

  • Cracking Good Time

    As so often happens, because I had a “bad” week last week in terms of spending too much on takeout and work lunches, I was motivated to do better this week. We “only” had takeout one night, and I bought lunch just once (and stretched it to be my dinner also). And I haven’t bought…

  • Taskmaster

    I am somewhat addicted to this game called Township that I started playing through Fetch. I guess it’s similar to Farmville; I never played that. I don’t usually play games on my phone, but when I do, I get addicted. I am all in. The game has a lot of tasks, and at times it…

  • Ye Olde Homestead

    Signs of life observed this week: Buds on the hydrangea. Arugula sprouts. Unknown flower bulbs. This weekend I really just wanted to pretend I was on a homestead (after watching several videos during the week about people buying farms in Ireland, Portugal and more — Tom’s idea). It kinda worked. I strode about the backyard…

  • Sunny Sunday

    After a rainy, gloomy week, the sun came out Sunday and the temperature hit 71 degrees. I spent some time outside topping off a planter and adding compost, and then sowing three types of carrot seed (Scarlet Nantes, Royal Chantenay and Little Finger). All the straw on the strawberries — I brushed that off. I…