Making Plans

I learned from one of my knitting friends, BB, last night that my favorite local greenhouse is doing online ordering and curbside pickups so I spent the morning working out a planting layout for my second-season bales and then making a plant list.  I'll wait a few days before emailing in my order because we're still having frost warnings overnight.  Gah!  When will it end????




There are buds on the lilac!  It looks like it's planning to bloom in the next week which I can't wait for.  I'll be cutting the flowers and keeping a vase on the table so that my house smells like lilacs.  Mm.







Speaking of good smelling houses, I made Chickpea Curry this afternoon and the house smells amazing.  I got six servings from the recipe and even had some leftover rice on hand so that four of the servings are all ready to be thawed and heated.  I'll need to make rice for the other two, no biggie.



There's a little male wren building a nest in the birdhouse on the patio fence.  I've been trying for days to get his picture and finally managed a quick snapshot today only to discover that it's blurry.  Dang it.  I'm putting it on here anyway.  I hear him singing when I wake up and through the day.  The male builds the nest and then sings to lure a female.  I hope he's lucky enough to find a lady who likes his construction so that they'll raise babies right outside my door.



I was excited to see this tiny pink bud on one of the blueberry bushes.  I've been watching to see if I'll have any blueberries or even leaves on the bushes this year.  I need to go out and spend an hour weeding around them and give them their annual fertilizer.

12 May--Barbara Malcolm, Tropical Obsession. 

The week after they arrived, she was surprised to see a big grin on Jack's face when he got home that night. "I met this Limey guy…

 Trust Jack to find a way to insult someone he had just met., Mona thought.

“…at the casino, a friend of a friend, you know how it goes."  Jack pulled her up out of her seat by her upper arm and dragged her along with him into the bedroom. "Anyway, this guy Major George something, he and his missus live here, they been on the island a couple of years."  He shoved her onto the bed and started undressing.

She slid back to lean on the pillow figuring this was going to be a long story. "See, they have lived here long enough to know everybody and be all connected, juiced you understand." 

Mona could hear that Jack had too much to drink. She was tempted to comment that he seemed a bit juiced himself but she knew that making a remark like that would earn her a backhanded slap and keep her out of the public eye for a few days until the bruises faded, so she said nothing, only nodded. 

"I figured that somebody like him would be connected to any action on an island this small, so I wrangled an introduction tonight at the Plaza."  Jack was struggling out of his shirt as he spoke, but the synthetic fabric was sticking to his sweaty skin, so it looked a bit like he was trying to escape from a trap.

It was all Mona could do not to burst out laughing. As it was, she had to fake a coughing fit as he struggled. She could not ask if he needed help either. He would interpret that as a commentary that he could not undress himself and be mad too, so she just sat there and watched him struggle.

Finally, he emerged from the bottom of the shirt and pulled it off his arms. His hair was all tousled and his face was flushed from the effort of fighting his way out, but Mona kept her face still and did not even smile at him.

"I met this George guy and his friend, um, well, anyway, George is having a big party tomorrow night for some climbing tologists or some damned thing. Weather scientists of some kind he said." 

Jack overbalanced onto the foot of the bed as he tried to take off his slacks and keep looking at her. He lay on his back kicking his foot to try and get the slacks off and they were flapping back and forth like a pennant in a strong wind and he kept talking while holding the end of his thigh and frowning while grunting and working his leg up and down to try and dislodge the fabric. 

Mona could feel her effort to suppress her laughter shaking the bed, but Jack's antics were shaking the bed enough that he didn't notice.

"So, we're going to a cocktail party at Major George's tomorrow night. His missus will call you. I forget her name." 

He finally kicked his slacks off and turned to her grinning like he expected praise for the accomplishment.

"Fine."  Mona slid her legs over the side of the bed to get undressed and ready to sleep. "Be right back," she said.

Jack hummed his agreement. When she got back from the bathroom, she laughed to see that Jack was sound asleep lying just where he had been across the foot of the bed. Mona turned out the lights, leaving a night light on in the bath, then she slid into bed and said, "goodnight, Jack."  Jack hummed again, turned over, and fell off the end of the bed.

It was good to see that the rabbits didn't kill my three berry-bearing bushes that CG planted for me last summer.  One of them has leaves, one has sprouts, and the third has growth from the ground but nothing on the branches.  I suspect I should make some chicken wire cages to put around them to give them some protection.  Maybe this weekend when it's supposed to be a little warmer.  I hope.
--Barbara