gratuitous purple

purple, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

After a grey spring, it was a real refresher to see these in a garden at the Smithsonian. It'll be another week though, before my oriental poppy deigns to bloom...

Vacation...

Veronica, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

and then shortly thereafter, I headed out of town for a long weekend. I visited DC on my way south; stopping in to visit a few favorite museums - the Sackler /Freer Gallery of Asian Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the gardens surrounding the Smithsonian castle complex. In spite of foggy, overcast weather, I had a nice visit to the capitol. Lots of flower macro photos up on my flickr site. I eventually wound up at a spring festival down in South Carolina. Lovely, quiet, restful. Enough said. Driving back north was nothing but rain, unfortunately, so it wasn't much of a scenic trip. So much for the Shenandoahs...another time I'll have to make a trip down there to camp and hike the AT on that stretch.

...after much digging

after much digging, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

this is how the first bed looked. I planted my early stuff here on April 15: lettuces and greens, radishes, beets, and nasturtium, peas and cilantro. As you can see, it was dark before I was finished.

Overheard while weeding...

So, I arrived in the cooler, later part of the day to do some much-needed weeding now that we aren't living with rain all the time (although a t-storm was supposedly imminent, and I did have several things to plant)... guess what I overheard while weeding? Being gardeners you'll appreciate this one.

So, we're at more than capacity at our community garden. Opening day we had 130 plots free, and volunteer clearing efforts on that day freed up an additional 5 plots that hadn't been in use in decades. (Woot! Woot! especially to those wielding heavy tools to clear; I was just cutting & pulling the smaller stuff.) Happy increases aside, that still apparently left 15 wait-list folks wanting. Hopefully we'll be able to accommodate a few more folks as plots get cleared out. I'm just glad people are jumping in and gardening.

So, there had been a much-neglected plot next to ours, and it was just a rock bed. Hardpan and rocks. In the interim while I was away, apparently a woman had adopted said plot, and I may say, had done a miraculous clearing job - possibly working solo, too, according to the Duchess. At least that's how it's appeared. We could just have missed the appearance of helpers. At any rate a herculean clearing job in order to make the plot workable, set up raised beds, and a fence, and (!) a gate with a nice lock (always advisable - gardeners aren't the only ones who visit the plots. Sad, but true.) At any rate, an astounding amount of work considering; when I arrived today I could see several beds well-established and they were working a couple more, with husband and kids at work too. Now, this is the funny part: so I'm busy weeding, and appropos of nothing, a piping 5 or 6 year old voice, in exasperated tones, declaims "Mummy! Do you even realize how much work this is???"

...wait for it...there's more...

Proving herself the truly patient soul this woman must be, she actually responded kindly - "Mmm, yes, dear, I certainly do." What an understatement. My back hurts in sympathy just thinking about all the digging and rock cultivating.

I really tried to stifle my guffaw, for mom's sake, but all I could think was how truly exhausting it must be sometimes to be mom.

Then again, I was the odd child who actually enjoyed weeding because it meant i could pick a snack while I worked. No, seriously. Odd, I know. I've said other memorably ridiculous things that I still have to live down. My personal favorite has to be a toss-up between "I can't eat that, it's DEAD!" and "He hit me back first!!!"

Nonetheless, it provided my evening chuckle, and that's all I needed. Just sharing.

And on that note, it's time for me to do the post-garden tick-check, and hit the shower. Photos to follow later...

the Cute Patrol

0502091106, originally uploaded by Margo and George.

...or, how I'm continuing to postpone putting up a decent catch-up post...

I was down in SC for a festival over the weekend. We lucked out with great weather, and I chatted with someone who was carrying around the cutest little kittens - maybe 10 weeks old? These little guys were looking for a home (which each of them found by the end of the weekend. I don't know who adopted them, I just remember the girl carrying them around updated me.) The festival was relaxed; a nice event. My cabin was cozy - a small wooden structure with a porch, that was originally constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the early 30s. Sadly, the interior had been graffiti'ed to death by decades of teenagers attending summer camp there. Some of them, amazingly, left behind their snail mail address (?!) - it's a little baffling to me but what can I say. I'm still sorting out the photos, and will update from the beginning once I get straightened out.

...more later...