More peonies, hard green fists. And the view yesterday afternoon from the front porch:
The sky was hazing over by then; it's still hazy today, despite the sunshine. Tomorrow we're supposed to have chillier temperatures and rain, an end to our early halcyon summer --- but as I remind myself, in four months I'll be thoroughly sick of the halcyon summer, so if it wants to rescind itself now, I can let it go.
My plan for the day is to go to the hardware store to acquire bedding plants for the kitchen garden, plus some more soil and compost to amend my planter bags. The kitchen-garden space is a mess, but if I can get things planted, that'll be something. I do have lettuces growing, which I hope we have a chance to eat before the heat sets in and they all go to bolt. I want very much to set some new strawberries, too, since last year's burned up completely in the heat. This time I'm going to put them in the ground, not in a container: the corner of the fence where the blackberries are has a good space of open ground that I think could well be taken up by strawberries. Then I can amend the soil in the big container and put herbs there: cilantro, basil, marjoram, whatever I can find. I already have thyme and lemon thyme in abundance, plus oregano, lavender, and a pot of chives.
This week I have planted Mexican sunflower seeds, plus zinnia and cosmos seeds saved from my flowers last year, and some morning glories. I also transplanted a baby forsythia to fill a spot by my front porch. But now it's kitchen garden time!
It is on days like this that I wish I had a good heavy denim jumper/pinafore . . . the dress equivalent of overalls. I tore holes in my teal Maggie dress back in the winter, lifting bags of topsoil and compost, and I'm loath to do that again. It wouldn't get here today, obviously, but I think that's going to have to be a Poshmark purchase --- a heavy, tough pinafore to throw on over another dress or wear with a top, for gardening and other messy things, to protect my better clothes. I'd wear the Japanese linen pinafore I wore yesterday, but I don't actually want to tear it up or stain it . . . .
Anyway, in the meantime, I guess I'll wear something I don't mind beating up a little:
*Wool& Camellia dress (M), bought July 2021, originally lapis blue, redyed royal blue by me in the summer of 2022
*Truly ancient cotton tee originally belonging to a tenant of my brother's, neckline and hem cut out by me
*Xero Colorado sandals, bought on clearance December 2021
I have long been weirdly attached to this tee, despite its cheesy slogan.
Day 5 hair in a claw-clip updo. I am going to wash it today, but not before I do all this grubbing in the dirt.
The unvarnished morning face of a person not actually optimistic by nature, just hopeful --- which is a different thing entirely.
PS: I did buy a denim pinafore on Poshmark for $7. I figure . . . yes, I have aprons, but this would be a dress I could throw on to go to the garden center (where I don't really want to be wearing an apron, however cute my aprons are) and to do heavy work outdoors. Again, breaking the "no dresses in 2024" rule, but as with the black linen dress I bought for choir and funerals, I think this exception is warranted, especially as it will save the dresses I have from further wear and tear. I still have major regrets about wearing my teal Maggie to the garden center back in January, when I wanted to plant Jerusalem artichokes (which are growing nicely, I might add). That dress already had one significant tear/mend, and now, thanks to that outing, it has more. Not great innings for a favorite dress, which I am sadly relegating to hiking/beating-around status. At some point, assuming they continue that color, I might buy another dress in it, because I love the color. NOT THIS YEAR, mind you, but sometime.
AFTERNOON UPDATE:
The garden is in, at least partially, with tomatoes, four kinds of pepper, and cantaloupe. I want to plant more stuff, but I need more grow bags and soil first.
I dragged all the grow bags, except the three holding tomatoes, over the house side of the garden, where I can more easily water them and where, being grouped close together, they'll keep the weeds down more. I did pull out a mountain of weeds today, but there still are some. I also wanted to give the blackberries growing along the driveway side of the fence plenty of room to sprawl this year, rather than trying to train them onto the fence.
Here is, God willing, a future blackberry:
I am really looking forward to having a whole thick hedge of them, not just for the berries (though I definitely look forward to more of those), but for the beautiful white blooms that precede the berries.
Also, God willing, some future grapes:
Last year the Japanese beetles ate up all my future grapes, and all the grape leaves, too. I have just ordered pheromone traps, in hopes that this year I can ward them off my plants. Bought some neem-oil spray, too. Die, beetles.
I worked hard for several hours, then came in, bathed, washed my hair, and washed all the clothes I'd been wearing, which were dirty and sweat-soaked. I am glad I wore my oldest Wool& dress, one which has already taken some punishment, because wouldn't you know it, I caught it on the fence (again) and started a nice little hole. Once it's dry I'll mend the hole, but yeah . . . I was right to buy a $7 secondhand denim pinafore, and am anxious for it to get to me, so that I can wear it for this kind of work and do a better job of protecting clothes I care about.
Now wearing my Not Perfect Linen Smock dress, which is lovely and airy for a warm afternoon.
So that's been my workout for the day, fueled by another grilled goat-cheese-and-fig-preserves sandwich on thick sourdough from a local baker --- the BEST sandwich ever.