I spent three nights in a hotel room this week. I slept better than I usually do and got a lot of work done, but I was ready for a day off today. After a bit of work this morning (mostly chatting with two colleagues), I headed outside and started transplanting perennials. I moved some phlox from a spot that has gotten shady over the years. But I also just relocated some plants and even worked on the herb garden, which had been worked over by the chickens before we fenced them out. I earned somewhere between 12 and 16 exercise points for WW so I am having two glasses of wine. And, dinner will be pretty healthy: skinless chicken breasts in Trader Joe’s curry sauce and rice and a salad.
My husband is the real gardener is the family and is considering signing up for the master gardener program in our town. But I like digging in the dirt, too, and am generally in charge of the flower beds, of which we have 4 major areas. I’ve been working on them slowly over the past several years, moving things, dividing things, and I think this will be the best year ever. I’m going to buy a few herbs tomorrow: basil and basil seeds, thyme, and a pineapple sage. I’ll get just a few annuals for the barrels in the front.
The only thing I haven’t accounted for is zinnias. I used to do them in the garden beside the front path but I’ve made that almost completely perennials and is a more “controlled” atmosphere. Maybe I can get my husband to dig up a plot in the front yard, where we are trying to reduce the amount of grass. I could just sow a swatch of them. I’ve got a big bag of seeds from last year and may get a few more tomorrow.
Aah…my window is open and I’m looking out on the back yard as usual. There are still chores to be done. The birds need fed after four days, and I should make hummingbird food and put those feeders out. But I think that shall be tomorrow’s job. A very small chickadee just stopped at the feeder for a sunflower seed then headed off to eat it. Simple but elegant and always exciting to have birds just a foot or so away.
I drank my first glass of wine sitting in the backyard reading Sharon Kay Penman’s Falls the Shadow, the second in a series of books about the relationship of England and Wales. I’m going to both those places in October and have a pile to read, including The Other Boleyn Girl on my Kindle.
I’m on my second glass of wine. I can hear a dove cooing in the woods. There’s that chickadee again and then the flutter of his wings as he heads off with his seed. I know I’ll have to work tomorrow, mostly on research stuff, but today was indeed a glorious day!