Planted

It wasn't raining this morning so I went out to play with dirt.  I got the garden plants into the bales--a

Roma-style tomato, cucumbers, potatoes, onion sets, parsley, and sweet basil.  A half-pound of onion sets is a lot of little tiny onions to shove into the mulch but I managed it.  It's amazing how much last year's bales have turned to compost.  There's still straw on the outside and inside too but when you dig down into the bale it's less straw and more compost.  Science in action!  The "bales" that I planted the onions in aren't bales anymore, they've turned to mulch so it was easy to push the sets into them.  Last spring I fenced around the third row of bales, mashed them down, and then pitchforked the other bales into the fenced area.  I tamped them down and that's where last summer's potatoes and onions grew.  The onions didn't grow very big so I have high hopes for this year's crop.  I need to do some reading up on how much water they like and fertilizer too, stuff like that.  The garden doesn't look as tidy as it usually does but I couldn't figure out how to get new bales in the midst of sheltering at home so I'm making do with last year's bales.  Watch, everything will grow like weeds and be amazing.


I delivered the masks to the taproom at lunchtime and then came home to plant flowers in pots.  I plant mostly red flowers so that the Hummingbirds have lots to aim at.  They like the salvia that is in the pots with geraniums and the lantana in the hanging baskets.





In front the four pots get coleus.  I love the different colors of the
leaves.  They were one of Durwood's favorites.  He was mostly a fan of plants you can eat from but he made an exception for coleus.

This robin had quite a time yanking a worm out of the ground and then subduing it so that it could have lunch.






I've been meaning to make some rhubarb bread since Sunday and finally managed to get it together

late this afternoon.  I used a way-too-big loaf pan so it looks like a rhubarb pancake.  *sigh*  The recipe calls for using two 5x3x2" pans which seem very tiny.  I wasn't thinking when I chose the pan I did.  I'll do better next time, or maybe I'll double the recipe to make a normal size loaf instead of two miniature ones.  I don't have pans that small, do you?

 19 May--Barbara Malcolm, Tropical Obsession. 

Mona was struck dumb by the bald truth of the statement.  She did need a friend, had needed one for a long time, but Jack did not want her to have a friend, he wanted all her thoughts to be about him.  “Why?  What makes you say that?” She had to ask. 

Susan cleared her throat and took a deep breath.  “Because I saw the way Jack treated you last night and I feel like you need someone on your side, someone to talk to, someone to tell you that you deserve better.  I presume you are not in contact with your mother.” 

“No, my mother got angry with me when I quit my job to move in with Jack and shut me out.”  Tears rose in her eyes and Susan saw the effort to control them, to suck them back in. 

“Well,” Susan reached over and laid a cool hand on Mona’s forearm, “consider me your mother substitute on the island.  I hereby give you permission to call me at any hour, day or night, to talk or cry or laugh.”  She dug in her clutch purse and pulled out a card.  “Here is my home number which you already have, but also my cell phone number.”  “

There are cell phones on the island?”  Mona was amazed. 

“Oh, my dear, cell phones are everywhere.  You can buy a cheap one at Sand Dollar Mini Mart and add minutes so you can be like everyone you see on television and talk on the phone while you drive.  Which I think is totally dangerous, don’t you agree?  At any rate, you can even call the States, although it is expensive, it is less expensive than those international phones you see outside resorts.  Those things cost the earth per minute.  Just terrible.” 

Mona took the offered card in her trembling hand.  “Thank you, Susan.”  She tucked the card in her purse.  “I will call, I promise.  Do you know what time it is?” 

“Three-thirty,” Susan told her.  “Why?  Do you have a curfew?” 

Mona gave a low chuckle.  “No, Jack told me not to come back to the villa until after four o’clock.  He is having lunch with that Manning guy, they are talking some sort of business deal I suppose, and he does not want me around.  Do you know anything about Manning?” 

Susan snorted.  “Jack is smart to want you out of the way.  Manning is a terrible flirt and a real bounder.  He is responsible for quite a few marriages breaking up.  He is a real hound, always available to soothe a woman’s feelings when she is angry with her husband and then she thinks that he loves her but if she leaves home Manning wants nothing to do with her.  Better stay away from him.”  She smiled.  “Maybe Manning and Jack deserve each other.” 

Mona shrugged.  “Maybe.”  The women kissed each other on the cheek and parted ways promising to keep in close touch.

Usually being busy all day makes me feel good, today it just made me tired.  And my lower back aches from all the bending over.  Getting old sucks.  Guess I'm having Tylenol for a bedtime snack.
--Barbara