Buzzy

For someone who works only four days a week, I sure don't seem to have much spare time. Having a three day weekend every week has freed up enough psychic space in my head that now I say yes to things I used to decline. Yes to seeing a play about Mark Rothko called "Red", yes to attending the Three Rivers Festival craft show, yes to babysitting my granddaughter, yes to yoga class, etc. I have managed to fill up that spare time easily.

But so far, no to blogging more. It's not that I don't have things to say, I just don't seem to have the time to say them. Besides leaving the house on a regular basis, there is the garden. The rainfall has been just right this year (hope I am not jinxing myself), which means instead of struggling to keep plants alive, I have been busy weeding and harvesting. The raspberries I planted last year have been supplying me with 3-4 ounces of fruit per day, but they need to be picked every day or two. The peppers and tomatoes have been finding their way into my salads in plentiful amounts, and green beans have appeared on the supper table. The garlic is ready to be dug (I did lose one variety - the Broadleaf Czech softneck did not make it through the winter), and the onions are almost there. This is SO different from previous summers!

Then there is the yard. My SO has been helping me tame it into submission, but we haven't turned the corner yet. The number of dandelions in my lawn had reached an embarrassing amount, so I did a weed 'n feed on the front yard. I had planned on doing the same in back, but I ran out of gunk, which is just as well because I have had to mow the front twice a week ever since. I finished clearing out the incipient blueberry bed on the south side of the house, moving Asiatic lilies and daylilies to the west side, and some of the painted daisies to the coreopsis-and-delphinium bed on the east. I even spared the hollyhock as they lure Japanese beetles from my climbing rose. I started a little butterfly garden by a window - joe pye, swamp milkweed, and cardinal flower - in hopes of attracting something besides cabbage whites.

And then there are the farmers markets. As with most municipalities, you can find a farmers market here almost every day of the week. After checking out several, I have settled on the Historic West Main Street Farmers Market (although I think most of the vendors are backyard gardeners like me), primarily because of its convenience and variety. I was even able to get some knives sharpened there. My downfall has been pickling cucumbers, which I have transformed into refrigerator pickles and jars and jars of relish.

And then there is my exercise routine, which I have finally returned to after bronchitis, a business trip, and a bad fall interrupted it. And the processing of raw milk into yogurt and ice cream. And some baking. Even some knitting.

The days are just packed.