Any Old Alibi

As is usual I posted furiously, or at least frequently, for several days and then disappeared. Numerous reasons.

1) Ian is here! (Yay!) He's off climbing and hiking during the day but we have our usual wonderful, far-ranging conversations in the evenings. He brought a couple of lovely books which we've been reading, and he brought Tony a wee little I-pod which he is playing with as I write.

2) We're spending a fair amount of time plant-tending. Everything is growing like stink, which is great, but I need to get some pots made where I can start transplanting seedlings into bigger homes. To do that I need to go to town and buy a couple of things; a soldering iron and some polyester quilt batting to serve as the "wick" in my sub-irrigated pots. I was trying to think of something I could recycle, but they warn against using any type of organic fabric like cotton, as it molds and produces problems.

I just went out and took pictures of my babies. Aren't they pretty? And finally, ONE green pepper seedling has come up. ONE. If no more come up I'll go buy some new seed and try again. And, in a few more days I will start squash, melon and okra seeds.

This morning, for the first time, I looked out the window and saw green leaves on the willows. Things are backwards this year. I thought the willows leafed out after the Mayday trees bloomed last year, yet here they are, with distinct green leaves and there are no Mayday blossoms to be seen. The lawns had a watering yesterday and turned from brown to emerald green in the space of a couple of hours. Now I'm waiting for the water to be turned on at the hose connection in the back so I can water my garden. It needs water desperately, and the three or four bucketfuls I can carry a day just isn't enough.

3) Both Tony and I have nasty nasty colds. Feels like someone went over my throat with a wood rasp, I'm stuffed up, achy and alternately shivering and fanning myself. I have very rosy cheeks, which ought to mean I am in robust health, but it's just the fever.

Tony feels about the same as I do, but he got sick two days earlier so he's a little farther long the road to recovery than I am. It's better today than yesterday when we both felt truly dreadful, but it's aggravating, since we really wanted to feel well while Ian was here.

So there you have it, my list of excuses for not posting. As the man said, Any old alibi will do. A minute ago a pair of purple finches were sitting on the Lord Buddha's head in the garden, while he fed her a seed he'd plucked from Buddha's lap. Very cute.