Arrrgh!!!

We're all yet living at the Buffy Bed and Breakfast, and doing fairly well. My week has been filled with accounting, household chores, errands, quilting and gardening. Actually, HUGE amounts of gardening and quilting. I had to make up some office time this afternoon because I was so busy with other aspects of my life.

Each year I hope to get started with my gardens in March, and each year I find myself at the end of March wondering where the heck the month went. So...things I had planned to do in March get heaped onto April, and some of April's chores get pushed back into May. When we FINALLY got rain this May I had to work around the showers.

We live where the soil is this wondrous black clay that turns to cement when it dries out. The rain we received over the last ten days was a gift from heaven in several ways. By March we were thirteen inches behind on precipitation, so the gentle rain was desperately needed, but the real gift was that it makes weeding a breeze. The roots slip right out of the ground, and you don't have to use a trowel or a hoe to ease them out.

While it was raining, I worked on the quilt I was making for my granddaughter's second birthday. I plan to blog more about that in the next few days. Unfortunately, I was just about halfway finished when it was time to give it, but it was well received despite the fact that they had to give it back to me to finish.

Last Saturday, Dear Husband motored the Arr!! up the lake to its summer mooring in Chicago. Today was the first day he went to the lakefront to sail, so it's official: I'm a boat widow. I assume that he will spend two nights and three days on the boat this coming weekend. I'm going to continue working on the quilt and the gardens and see at least one movie, possibly two. And, I think this weekend I may make my first trip to the farmer's market.

It's not too early to be thinking about our Memorial Day meal. We usually have an indoor picnic, with hamburgers and hot dogs or brats, and potato salad. I need to be looking for alternatives to the high carb potato salad, or make that for Elegante Mother while DH is away. When we hit tomato season, I'll be eating lots of tomato, cucumber, green onion or broccoli salad, but I'm holding out for the homegrown tomatoes!

The exercise class will be coming for brunch the second of June, a week later than we usually see them. Unfortunately, the iris may be past their prime by then. We have clouds of blooms on the iris on the garage side of the sidewalk. (I'll try for pictures tomorrow.) The iris on the outer edge of the sidewalk are just opening, but it will be a stretch for them to hold on for ten days if we get any heat. The peonies are loaded with buds, so maybe they will be in bloom just in time.

I've planted a climbing rose that EM ordered, on the west side of the arbor at the end of the herb garden. I planted another rose that is larger than a miniature, but smaller than most roses, in the herb garden. I felt it needed a little color, and I can always move the rose if I need the space.

I'm halfway through cleaning out the walkway and beds of the herb garden, and I have about 90% of the east driveway garden done now. There's still a lot to do at the front of the house and in the garden at the lower end of the drive, but I'm slowly getting there. I've started planting some of the things we bought this week. If there's time tomorrow, the herbs and tomatoes will go in.

I plan to plant good sized groupings of fewer plants in two of the areas, to get a mass of color. I'm also trying to choose plants that will be able to deal with sparse watering. While I may have help on Fridays this summer, the plants at the end of the drive may only get watered when I have that help, so they need to be hardy little suckers.

So...you can see that I am preoccupied with getting the gardens in shape for the summer, and preparing for three weekends of partying. Everything is normal here. How about at your place??