Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

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...

The overwhelm continues, as aided and abetted by Mother Nature and a really lousy night's sleep. I'll be doing garden stuff tomorrow. Today, it's 45 and rainy. No thanks. It is not safe for me to be shlepping about in wet grass in the cold while no one is home. To be honest, I'm okay with it. I slept very poorly, and I am entirely sick of these busy, stupid dreams where I'm in charge of situations that are absurd, but in the context of the dream, are dire as well.  Enough already.  It was an exhausting week (who am I kidding, month-school year-decade), and I dearly wanted sleep. So today, I'll putter about the house, get groceries, and grade papers, all while laundry churns despondently.  I don't know why the laundry would be despondent. I'm probably projecting.  I'm usually super excited about the last two weeks of school, but this year, I just feel like it's been enough, I want it done, and heaven help the next person who poses yet another pape...

I am truly feeling the end of the school year tired. There's so much to do, too many loose ends to tie up, and of course, there's the added "I need to get my garden planted but it's supposed to be stupid cold and rainy" thing, and the "O my goodness, Holly has no school after 12:30 next Friday who is gonna watch her" thing, and the "dangitall, my book is delayed a little but should be here sometime mid-June and I want to schedule a launch party" thing.  I need a little breather.  So, I watched another rom-com last night, and it was actually super good, had some interesting twists in it, and yeah, if you are feeling super overwhelmed like I am, I'd recommend Love at First Sight currently on Netflix. I know, the title is... yeah... but the movie is based on a book, too. It was fun to watch, had some serious moments, and it was altogether satisfying.  The Red Sox blew chunks. Sigh again.  Today is Friday, we'll finish both Othello and St...

I did not watch a rom-com last night. Instead, I invested in watching the Red Sox--and they won, handily, convincingly, reassuringly! This is after I watched Jeopardy, got 28 right, and got the final question right as well.  I was feeling pretty good, truth be told.  My Creative Writing kids are doing a great job reading Othello aloud; they all predictably despise Iago, but they have no inkling what's coming (we are only in Act III). Fun stuff. And the APLit kids are watching Streetcar Named Desire -- and they all sense that things are going to get really awful (we only got through the first 36 minutes so far). How depressing, really, to bring the school year to a close with those two plays. But still, it's good stuff.  I spent some time yesterday revising syllabi, and I think I'll put Richard III in APLit next year instead of Othello . And Fences (film version) instead of Streetcar . I need a change. I'm even going to cave and teach Frankenstein in Brit Lit. Suffice...

I've found myself gravitating to really formulaic rom-coms on Netflix lately. It's not my usual fare, but I'm finding that watching those is somehow comforting. I particularly like the ones where Italy and cooking are involved, it seems. I'm almost puzzled by this recent desire for escapism, but I spent a lot of the winter watching mysteries, so I guess this is what my brain wants right now. Probably it's some sort of insulation against the atrocities in the news.  We all need a break. If this is my (temporary) mental hiding place, so be it. It could be a whole lot worse. The weather around here is warm and sunny for a few days, so I'm soaking that vibe in as well. G planted the two honeyberry bushes yesterday afternoon, and if they take off, that'll be nice. Something new to add to the fruits of our labor, quite literally. And both of the holly bushes survived the winter! I hope that they'll grow a lot this summer so we don't have to worry about the...