Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

It's been a super hot week in our neck of the woods-- capping 85 degrees or more each day. Now, it looks to be a cloudy/rainy/cooler weekend-- figures. Maybe I'll get the rest of my garden in. I hope to. It's all for the best I didn't get plants in the ground-- last weekend, frost. This week, they would have cooked.  I'm feeling a little "cooked" too-- we'll get through the week, the graduation, and next week with some sort of grace and grit.  Wish us luck.  In the meantime, I am having a hard time thinking about the fact that the feds want to somehow tie college programs to potential earnings and apportion or restrict educational loans to those quasi-metrics. If one is going to be an artist, a writer, a social worker-- yeah, pretty much all of the helping professions and the arts-- then funding might not be there. This will really shut down any real progress in the humanities, education, etc. This comes on the heels of the stupid decision to declassif...

Well, another marker passed. Both ball teams lost, so the season is over. (Red Sox won last night, though.) Tonight is National Honor Society induction, and as a faculty sponsor of a delightful young lady, I get to attend and pin her. That will be nice; it's the first time EVER any of my students have asked me to do so, and I'm honored.  And they are feeding us, so that's good, too.  I found my own pin from (cough, cough, 1982 I believe) in my jewelry box. It was a big deal. I hope today's kids think it's a big deal, too. What I recall best, though, from the ceremony I was at is Mrs. Bernadette Chouinard's punch recipe. It was amazing. I asked her for it shortly after, and she very graciously wrote it out for me. (Way to advocate for myself, eh?) Other than that social/work engagement, today should be a lighter day. Seniors have their last academic day today, and we'll be having a round table chat about the things they chose to write about in their final exa...

Wednesday-- Seniors have one more day after today, then it's grad practice and done on Sunday. Amen. The emotions are running high; no fights, but kids are a little wound up. I get it. And today, both softball and baseball have the first round of playoffs. There's a lot going on.  That all said, the best decision I have made in a while (educationally) is to have my AP Lit seniors hand-write their final exam essay. I bought blue books (big ones), pencils, and told them they could bring notes/materials, but NO computers. And they are writing it all in class in front of me. They should also share their draft with one peer for input on content, another for editing suggestions, and show it to me for a conference before it's done. (All three reviewers must sign the blue book, too.) They have been given approximately three class periods to get the essay done-- 5-7 pages (not too much), and they could choose either one work of fiction or 3-5 poems we have studied and write a convin...

It's "hell week" at school, at least for those of us who have seniors. I spent almost two hours last night, tired and fuzzy-headed, grading essays. Normally I don't do those until the weekend, because by evening time, I'm not in a good head space to read/assess student writing. And they were marginal at best. I think they are as ready to say "chuck it all" as I am.  That said, today is a relatively "easy" day for me: work, at which both classes are working on final stuff, then home to do a little more planting of seeds. I researched it, and it turns out that carrots are good friends with peas; I have room in front of the peas to put in a row, so I will. And beets, too. I planted both yesterday in their assigned box, but hey, they can go visiting, too. And G and I will be going to get the rest of the plants I need when he gets home, because there is no other time this week, and I want to get them in the ground over the weekend, probably after gr...

Well, hail. We had quite a boomer/hailstorm come in yesterday around 4pm. Luckily, G and I gave up the garden project when we were getting soaked with rain around noon-- but I did get the strawberries weeded (I think I need to move them to another location later this year), and he got the new garden box assembled and the boxes weeded out for me to plant. I hope today is the day to get seeds in the dirt! It's supposed to be pleasant (mid-60s), so when I get home, I'll figure that plan out. Likely Holly will be helping me. =) I am not so foolish as to have put out tomato plants yet-- we had a full moon (always cold), and the weather didn't look plant-friendly. I have to purchase a few more, and get some hard-shell squash sets as well. Maybe a couple of cucumber sets. But those will not get in the ground for a little while yet. I bought three lovely tomato plants from our church plant sale on Saturday, too. I will not buy as many as I did last year-- I was inundated with tomat...

It's 35 degrees and wet. I am trying not to lose patience, but the garden boxes will not be planted today-- too wet. I'll weed the strawberries though. I'm sure I'll find other forms of huswifery to engage in (fold laundry, likely).  That said, I am off rom-coms for a bit; a friend recommended Shakespeare and Hathaway on Britbox, and it's funny. It's another light-weight detective series with dear and recognizable characters, some witty banter, and so on. I'm good with that. And the Sox won yesterday! And I slept last night! Some dumb dreams, but nothing fraught.  So it's Sunday, and we'll head off to church and then find breakfast somewhere. Maybe the diner. G is going to add some new enrichment (soil, composted manure) to the boxes and (I hope) build the new one today. And do some string-trimming. Thus, I will be able to plant the seeds as soon as it's not mucky in the boxes. We sure did get a lot of rain. And it's cold. I'm grateful fo...