Oh, long weekend, how I love you.

Yesterday afternoon, after planting my 200 milkweed seeds* I knit for a while. Then I did my daily reading - now I'm on Madeleine L'Engle's "The Rock that is Higher" and was at the section where she kept talking about the Story of the Garden, and how it can be seen as our First Home, and I kept thinking garden...garden...garden.

So after I got done reading, I went out and cleared all the leaves and weeds out of my herb garden, and most of the weeds and leaves out of the shade-garden on the north side of my house.

And then I showered, and I knit another full repeat on the Hiawatha shawl. And knit some on the "simple" socks (Opal Rainforest "Owl", I should photograph them sometime).

And then this morning, I hit the various garden centers. Yes, it is "Use what you have month" but it's also "prime garden set-up month" and all I have are a few partial packets of expired seed. So I decided to allow myself to purchase what I felt I needed.

And then I planted.

I now have calendulas (another one of my favorite plants) and white petunias (hoping to attract hummingbird moths) in the unused part of my front garden, and a few more basil, and I finally found some Roma tomato plants that didn't look poxy, so I've got six Romas and a couple other odd varieties. And marigolds, to try to stave off nematodes. And some impatiens and torenia in the shade garden. And more lavender - I've decided I like Munstead better than Provence because the foliage is more strongly scented.

If I had the time, money, and a group of burly men working for me, I'd seriously consider ripping out the whole back lawn and replacing it with a series of gardens connected by brick paths. Lots of herb gardens, a butterfly and hummingbird garden, a bigger tomato patch. But I don't have that much time and there aren't any burly guys forthcoming (at least that I would trust with my garden plans) so it will remain lawn for now back there.

I watered everything using my sprinklers and got to watch the birds taking "showers" by flying through the sprinklers (they must be desperate for water; it's been so dry. I filled up my birdbath with clean water after I got done).

And then I made saltena-style picadillo and tortillas for lunch. So I'm good for the rest of the day, might just have a bowl of cereal at supper time.

I've been knitting more on the shawl, but I am going to shift over to the simple socks again because I have some work-related reading to do.

And tomorrow is Easter! And I have another whole empty afternoon in which to do as I please! Which I think will be more work on the current quilt.

I NEEDED this couple of days off. Needed it badly. It was a joy to get up this morning and toddle off to the garden centers at 7:30 am without the potential of having to be somewhere at a certain time hanging over my head. And it was a joy to just go in the garden and work - I even took my watch off, because it didn't matter what time it was.

(*I also forgot to note that Thursday afternoon I went out and looked for actual plants in the field - Kanga in a counting mood - and I found 28 on the larger, western part of the preserve but only 8 on the eastern end. That's 1/4 or fewer than have been present in previous years. I suppose it's the drought.)