The Farmer in the Bales

That was me today.  I planted three potatoes bristling with sprouts in the fenced compost and even thought to poke a thin bamboo stake in where I'd planted them so I don't weed one out by mistake.  Then I pushed onion sets in around them and just over halfway to the other end.  I figure that I'll harvest them from the front to the back, the early harvests to be used like green onions so that when the potatoes are potato-ing there won't be onions in the way.  Behind the onion sets I planted the six shallot bulbs, then separated and planted the garlic cloves.  I stuck a craft stick (i.e. popsicle stick) in where I planted bulbs so I know where those are too.  I suspect that I won't harvest any garlic this year.  I read in the straw bale book that I should have planted it last fall in a specially conditioned bale in order to harvest them this summer.  I hope I don't have to wait that long.


Then I decided to plant the herbs in the ground along the "extra" length of soaker hose that goes along the edge of the bales nearest the timber edge of the garden.  I yanked out any chocolate mint runners I found so that the herbs have a fighting chance.  Last year's herbs had the devil of a time competing with the mint which I'd planted alongside them so this year I thought I'd give the herbs a break.


After lunch I mowed the lawn for the first time this year.  The most challenging part was avoiding the flags that the Diggers Hotline guy put in the lawn so the retaining wall guy knows where not to dig.  I avoided all but one flag.  Oops.  But there aren't any buried lines near the retaining wall so I don't think there'll be a problem.  I hope that they come soon to build the wall.




The grape hyacinths are blooming like crazy and the few surviving tulips (rabbits like eating them) are blooming too.  They're so pretty.  Maybe I'll pick some grape hyacinths tomorrow to enjoy in the house.  I wonder if they have a fragrance.


13 May--Turkey, Panel of six glazed fritware tiles.  "I hate that backsplash," Cheryl said.  Lara, the realtor, gripped her binder so hard that her fingers went white.  "These are antique times from Turkey, Cheryl.  People would kill to have them."  Cheryl flipper her hand in dismissal.  "I'll have them pried off and sell them then instead of junking them.  I want white subway tiles."  "Oh," Lara said, "as long as they're undamaged."  She wasn't about to lose the sale over a few blue and white tiles.

It felt so good to be out in the sunshine today.  It probably got up to 60 degrees, maybe a bit higher, and it's supposed to be warmer the rest of the week.  Finally.  I even remembered to put sunscreen on my face, a good thing since I'd fried my nose a week ago Saturday.  Can you say "peel"?  I got a message on FB Messenger supposedly from my SIL in Ohio last night encouraging me to apply for a government grant from some community fund.  It made me suspicious and I finally figured out this morning that it was a scam when I started getting texts which stopped when I said I was contacting the police.  If it sounds too good to be true, it is.  A very valuable life lesson.  You know if those guys put as much energy into a legitimate job as they do these scams they'd make more money and not be criminals.  I don't understand.
--Barbara