her able hands

That was a wacky couple of days there…fifty degrees and pouring down rain followed by four degrees overnight and winds so fierce it sounded like a train running into the house.

All morning, Lila and I admired the sun shining through the frost on the living room window. Then I had to go into the office for the first time since last Thursday. But let’s not go there right now. Let’s stay in our happy place that’s full of icicles and snowflakes and warm bowls of Navy Bean Soup and Buttermilk Biscuits and Zinfindel. Mmmkay?

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So, happy Tuesday! The past five days have been a bit of a blur so I’ll just recap in bullets:

• Thursday Tyler=strep, missed four midterm exams.
• Thursday evening, Lila fever of 106. Trip to urgent care. Strep, double ear infection.
• Friday worked at home, both kids home sick. Ty stayed in his room and slept. Lila moaned on the couch, fever hanging out around 101 even with Motrin.
• Saturday afternoon, Lila’s fever back up to 105. Trip to ER. The Zithromax she was on apparently not covering the hidden, undiagnosed pneumonia in her right lung.
• Sunday afternoon, massive allergic reaction to the new antibiotics. Benadryl helps the swelling, but the red dye makes her certifiable.
• Sunday night, mama drinks a big goblet of cheap wine and goes to bed with massive headache, then stays awake all night for the third night in a row, listening to the water bubbler sound of Lila breathing. But she’s breathing, so we’ll take that with thanks.
• Monday trip to pediatrician reveals that first prescription for Zithromax was at a 50% dose given over ten days, rather than the 100% dose over five. Thus the non-coverage for the developing pneumonia. So back on Zithromax at correct dosage and lesson learned: even though urgent care is only three minutes away and the co-pay is $50 instead of $100, it’s better to pay the extra and drive farther in order to get to the ER at Children’s Hospital where they know what they’re doing for little ones.
• Tuesday—hey! It’s Tuesday! And yes, I’m still attempting to work a little bit from home while Lila hangs out on the couch watching movies, reading, drawing maps and coughing. Oh, the coughing. I’d like to be able to bring her back to school tomorrow, but I’m just not sure. Fever’s gone, but this cough when it hits—it just knocks her out.

So my two boxes of seeds are still sitting on the dining room table, waiting for my attention and I’m thinking I’ll just dive in and do that today. Make a list of what I have, then compare that to what I want to order.

Is it too late to start a few cartons of winter sown perennials out on the porch? We’ll still have at least one more deep freeze here in Ohio, right?

Also thinking a lot about this Victory Garden Drive that’s the hot new garden challenge with an excellent mission. I had vowed to myself that I would not sign on for any blogging challenges this year, and instead just focus on my own little path, explore the topics that I want to write about in relation to my city acre and my goals for building a more self-sufficient life. But this Victory Garden Drive is such a great idea. I’ll have to sit with it some more to see if/how I want to be involved blogwise. But I’ll be planting my Victory Garden, as always.

Interesting to note that the area down the length of the driveway where Chris piled all of the mulched fall leaves has melted off first. The area with leaves is big, but not very deep, maybe four or five inches. So I don’t think it’s composting heat that’s melting the snow. Across the driveway where we didn’t manage to get any leaves piled is also melted. I think it’s more sun, so I’m very hopeful that this is just the right area for my sun-loving vegetables.

Oh! And I had a vision! Sorry, I know that sounds hokey. But it’s true. While browsing through the Fedco Tree Catalog, trying to decide on what Pear varieties to grow, I saw them espaliered—one tree on either side of the front steps. They’ll get plenty of sun and good drainage, be protected from some of the winds, and in several years we’ll have a living wall along the front of the house. I can see how magical the front porch will become when it’s in bloom. The fragrance of blossoms, and then the rich, fermented ripening pears hanging right there in front of us while we eat a late summer supper. I’m very excited about this! I’ll transplant all of the Evening Primrose to another bed and plant a half-ring of Comfrey around the drip line to help pull up nutrients and loosen the clay on the outer edges.

Gosh, it’s almost 50 degrees out there today! I want to get out and start right this minute.

But no, first things first. Seed inventory! Winter sowing! Clean off the light table and finish mounting the lights so I can start my onions, and shallots inside.

Spring is well and truly on her way, people. Which means some of these nasty-asty germs we’ve been burdened with will begin to die off, right?

Please?

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I finally moved about 2000 digital photos out of my iPhoto and onto a couple of CDs last night. I edited out the many, many duplicate shots of food and plants and in the process took a wonderful trip down the memory lane of this past growing season. Such a treat remembering the many ways our hands stayed busy all summer long and to see proof again when right now when it’s 17 degrees out and the world is encrusted in ice and snow, and it feels as if nothing will ever grow again. It’s SO good to review all we have put in place so far to become less dependent upon the grinding commercial food industry and to gain inspiration for growing that independence even more in the coming season.

I picked this first hand full of Vermont Cranberry beans too early because I grew impatient with the lack of sun on the pods and the weeks they took to even begin to blush.

I had a big helper in the garden all season and I thrilled to see Lila grow more conscious of what her hands should and should not do while moving in and out of the plants. She was my number one cherry tomato harvester.

Between my garden and the farmers’ market, I set out a giant bowl of fresh salad at just about every dinner we ate last summer. Next summer I’d like to learn some more homemade dressing recipes, I relied a little too heavily on Newman’s Own vinaigrettes which is fine but a little boring. If you have a favorite salad dressing recipe, please share!

Pinch me again! I almost forgot that these black raspberries grow wild right behind the gardens next door, and if we get some early summer rains, they’re plump and juicy just like the ones in this bowl. Mercy, they were so good. I can’t even find words to describe the wild berry explosion that occurred after I popped each one in my mouth. Heaven?

I won’t need to buy any seed potato in the spring because the harvest sprouted in the basement much faster than I thought it would. I guess it’s a little too warm down there, and I’d like to look at eventually turning one corner into a true root cellar by blocking it in with cement blocks.

In about six weeks I’m going to replant the greens boxes and then try not to stare out the window at them to make time move more quickly and bring us back around to that lush, glorious green of high summer. I’m still working on my seed list and narrowing down what to buy. I’ll be planting in the oversize cold frame that Chris built as well — the one with the much too high back and the big bay window that’s too heavy to lift and has a frame so flimsy that it feels as if it will shatter in mid-air. But it’s salad greens real estate and maybe I’ll figure out a way to modify it so it’s less deadly.

Looking back is such an inspiring way to examine the here and now in order to set forth the plan for the future, don’t you think?

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Well, I took down all of the Christmas decorations last week, but the tree is still hanging out in the living room, and apparently doing quite well. So well, in fact, that it has its very own little salad garden sprouting on top of the root ball.

I wonder if they’re edible.

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I managed to get the photos loaded into iPhoto, and cropped the giant flash flare out of this. It’s only one coat so not very smooth yet, but you can get the idea. Don’t you love the crap brown carpet? It’s staying around until Lila’s a little older because it hides everything, which is not always a good thing. I can’t think of a worse way to start the day than to schlump down the steps in the morning and plant my bare foot firmly in an invisible pile of cat barf before I’ve even had a cup of coffee.

I’m just saying.

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