Bought four more bales of straw yesterday (in addition to the two I bought earlier) and will spend part of this morning distributing it over the asparagus bed, around the eggplants and cabbages, until that bed is completely covered. Then I will spend several hours in the chicken house garden, planting and weeding and probably distributing more straw, though that garden stays so wet, I don’t know quite what to do with it. Four bales seems like an incredible luxury! The bales are expensive — four cost me $19 — but it seems crazy not to spend some money on the garden for something that will build up the soil, when I am making enough money to do it, and have such irregular time to work on it.
Picked my third zucchini this morning in my 6 a.m. survey of the outside worId, which is right now misty in the mornings, and then hot when the sun burns off the mist. Had a great time in the garden yesterday morning, mulching with the straw. It makes everything look so beautiful. The Hopi orange squash are beginning their race across the lawn, the squash, once again this year, look stunning, though I have only three zucchini plants, one of which is being overwhelmed by the Hopi Orange. I think I need to think about where I will have my squash bed next year, maybe start now to make a new bed. I think I need to start taking material out of the compost container, as it is almost full most of the time. I have no idea whether it has been “working” the way it ought, but I’m sure whatever is in it is nutritious and would be good to use in some of my depleted beds.
I hope I’ll get some fertilizing done today too. I hope by spending several hours down in the chicken house garden today I’ll discourage whatever creature it is — probably the groundhog — who is eating the lower leaves and flowers off the pole beans. I want to plant more beans down there, also beets, and transplant my basil. I’m putting pepper plants into the places I’m taking out cabbage, and know I need to fertilize those plants as the soil is probably pretty used up.
Pulled many of the onions I’d planted around the cabbages, which didn’t get much sun, but still, some of them have enough bulb to use in stir fries.
I’ve been painting the bathroom — have devoted parts of three evenings to it while I listened to books on tape. I’m painting it white, which makes it look MUCH better, even bigger. I think I can have it done in one more evening, and want to finish it before Friday when M– comes to clean.
We’ve gone on a walk the last two mornings (and will go this evening when P– gets home, since he has to work the early shift today), which seems to immediately raise my energy level. I worked hard yesterday morning in the garden and then, after having lunch with M– at Tall Paul’s (at which time I also did the laundry), I came home, took a nap, ate supper, and then painted. Turned out the light about 10 p.m., just a few minutes before someone took it into his head to start shooting, I think down at the old dumpster site. Worried about the cats but they were here at daybreak for their Captain’s Table this morning.
I want to get one or more pieces written to submit to Pat Stone, who I think will be reading again in August. He has published everything of mine that he has accepted.
I just got an acceptance from Ruth Moose for an all-woman issue of Potato Eyes, and sent off Pocket Watch to Glimmer Train and I Have a Story to Tell to DoubleTake.
1:00 p.m.
Have retreated from the heat for several hours after working in the garden. Got another bale of straw distributed, gave quite a few things a shot of MiracleGro, and started weeding in the chicken house garden, which soon got too sunny to work in. Brought in the rest of the laundry and am now going to write for a few hours.
My eight second-generation monarchs have just finished molting and are beginning to eat again. I have them in my terrarium, on milkweed in a quart of water, on my desk. They look great, are about an inch long now, growing very fast. The smaller of the two big caterpillars I have in the other room has gone up to the screening. It had a mark on its back when I collected it, which I thought must be where it was parasitized, and I think I was right. I am thinking of allowing one tachinid fly to finish its metamorphosis so I can see exactly what they look like for future reference.
Killed a squash borer moth on my squash plant today, an insect P– and I saw yesterday when we were walking around the garden. I certainly hope it did not spend the time between our first sighting and my identification of it boring into my beautiful squash plants. They are magnificent right now, but could certainly get wiped out. They have before. I don’t ever remember seeing one of those things before, just the evidence that they have been around.
A couple of cabbage butterflies were fluttering around in the chicken house garden laying eggs on the kale and other brassicas while I was working down there. I tried to smash one of them, but it eluded me. I found eggs all over everything. How I am going to keep that stuff insect free I have no idea.
Stopped to pick milkweed to feed my caterpillars yesterday and got five plants with eggs on them (at least. I haven’t really looked carefully at the rest of them.) So I have some babies in my future again. The last round of eggs (I think there were ten of them; how many there are now I don’t know) are now small caterpillars, maybe a quarter of an inch long. But I’m down to only two chrysalises, which should be emerging around the sixteenth.
I’m very sleepy. Think I’ll take a short nap and then start writing again. (1:17 p.m.)
3:00 p.m.
I read a story in The Writer about how-to/personal experience articles and have decided I am going to write two of them:
1) How to Get More Out of Your Daily Walk and
2) Share Dinner Preparation Time by Reading Aloud
1 ) How to Get More Out of Your Daily Walk. This arises out of a comment Bruce McKinney made when we ran into him yesterday, when he and we were on our walks. He said he varies his route to reduce the monotony. Monotony is never a problem for me because I use the time to acquaint myself with the natural world. Here are some of the things I do:
When the leaves are off the trees: collect bird nests, collect chrysalises, collect seeds (cleome), collect praying mantis egg cases for my garden.
Learn bird calls, identify trees
Notice “wildlife” (including the Regal Moth, a screech owl, possums, etc.)
Note the changes that occur with the changes of seasons.
I will think of more.
2) Sharing Dinner Preparation by Reading Aloud.
Part I: Reasons:
Reading classics that I either never read or read twenty-five years ago and would not have time to read otherwise.
Sharing the time instead of mate sitting in living room entertaining self while other person cooks meal
A chance to discuss the books, and a growing basis of shared experience we otherwise wouldn’t have.
Part II: Some Suggested Titles:
Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain;
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun;
Giants in the Earth by Ole Rolvaag
Great Expectations, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Return of the Native or Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence.
Though we have tried history, I (as the cook) suggest novels because I found it easy for my mind to lose the thread as I study a recipe. Also, the story element seems to be important in anything read this serially. I always loved to be read to as a child; this is recapturing that time for me. Listening to a book on tape is an alternative, although it has several drawbacks, the greatest of which is that you can’t stop it at will to discuss a point, to ask a question, etc.