Okay, now, I didn't meant to leave on that note. Rather, I wanted to demonstrate through the sheer proliferation of other images (down below) that life is otherwise going very nicely for me at the moment (but I got too tired last night and fell into a mini-catatonic state, cursing and moaning inwardly that I didn't get to clarify the rest, so here goes). It is indeed beginning to feel mostly like the Year of J, and I imagine it will feel that way even more in 19 days when the quarter is officially over and my Summer of Not Working can begin!

I should clarify "not working." By that I mean three glorious friggin months of not teaching! And then next year, I'm going to have a chance to teach creative writing (Winter Quarter), and so I have plenty of lead time to prepare, but I'm getting off track because the point is... NOT TEACHING! Hallelujah and praise the lords! It's not that I dislike teaching, but that teaching is so intense and requires so much of my brain - planning, commenting, grading, reading, etc - that's there's little left over afterwards to do anything more creative than mix a mojito with lemonade rather than tonic water.

So, I actually do plan on working. And I think it's going to be very very hard. The force is not with me, my creative juices are unflowing, my writing callouses have withered and fallen off, my brain is the size of a protozoa and makes motions by vaguely flagellating its few remaining neurons, which are all carefully placed as to ensure my brain circulates the brainpan in rapid little circles that are attacked and bitten off in spastic spurts and paralytic gasps. So, yes... it will be hard work picking myself back up, dusting up on my Darwin and Euclid and Dostoevsky (all that jazz), getting going again. And yet I shall...

... I've even got a 'commission' to do artwork for my mother's clinic, whatever a 'commission' might mean.

Anyhow! To the point of these photos (down below, up above). I have been putting the garden back into order slowly...


This is the new gate that I've been building here and there, though I am actually rather startled by how long it takes to assemble a bunch of sticks and tie them together, but apparently it's not a no-brainer. However, the gate is now finished (I couldn't upload the newer photos because my uploaderer broke). I like my little gate, and I imagine when the sunflowers and sweetpeas I'm planting next to it are growing over the fence, it's going to look quite smashing. I also have this tentative Idea in the back of my head of making a little arbor to go over the top of it, but we'll see (I concocted that little Idea pre-gate-making, back in the innocent, naive days).




These are all the babies that are quietly tucked away in the greenhouse, not yet coerced by the lack of surcease in hail and hard rain into the wilds of the Open Air. I planted my pumpkins, Kentucky pole beans, and cabbage outside perhaps a tad prematurely: the poor little buggers are taking a beating and looking rather torn and tattered. Their "spare" brethren inside are looking decidedly smug and told-you-so-ish. Right now I've got sweet peas, gourds, squash, cucumbers, sunflowers and a few other things waiting here (the tomatoes are my mother's). The peppers I think I'll put in big pots and leave inside the greenhouse. They didn't do so stunningly last year, but I figured I'd give them a second shot.




The garlic was my only winter crop this year, although I think I'm going to try chard this year and see how long it keeps going. I belatedly realized that I gave the garlic my bean/pea plot, but then solved the issue by planting in rows and hoping it all works out well. I do love peas and beans ever so much!


The potatoes are my big new crop... planted in the place where the corn didn't do so well last year. I never realized how amazing potatoes are! They are already about 6" taller than in this photo (which was taken 5/23). They grow so bloody fast, it's amazing. I'm pleased I planted them, even if my father smirked and said "Why'd you plant those when you can go down and buy 'em for a buck at even the organic markets?" Spoil sport. I told him that trying to explain to a non-gardener was a ridiculous and wall-crumbling endeavor. But yooooouuuu guys get it, right?


All different kinds of salad... mmmmmm. I'm going to try to eat mostly only greenery for dinner this summer, if do-able.

Yep, definitely a place where I feel calm and happy and productive. All mine too, which is lovely. I'm such a selfish pig about my garden (I mean, making it... I love sharing the goods, just not the endeavor, which is so quiet and peaceful. Even Herald parks it outside the gate and doesn't dare touch so much as a toe on the other side. Not to mention the folks as they sip their gin.)