Sunday: Now with herbs and stuff.

[elfs]

Vegetables!

A happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Kouryou-chan, Yamaraashi-chan and I all gave Omaha hugs and cards and stuff, I called my mother, Omaha called all of her relations that are mothers. Omaha asked for pancakes for breakfast and that's what she got; they were a little dry this time, but Kouryou-chan made hers disappear just as readily as everyone else.

Yamaraashi-chan was at her mother's all day, but I remembered to send her phone an IM making sure she remembered to give her mom the card I'd asked her to pick out yesterday.

Lisa took Omaha down to Des Moines for some kind of plant and gardening show, I never did get the story straight on exactly what they were going for, leaving me to do some actual gardening. I mowed the back lawn at the highest setting, and will have to mow again in a few days at a lower setting, once the grass has recovered from the trauma. I raked the grass and mixed it in with some leaves and starter compost from the oldest of the compost bins, and I settled this into a pair of 45 gallon trash bins-- light enough I can turn them over and shake them at will, so they should compost nicely and quickly, if I remember to actually do the mixing.

But the best fun was gridding out the garden space and then planting: basil, stupice tomatoes, grape tomatoes, zucchini and strawberry vines. There's more to be done tomorrow: four of the plants didn't get planted. But I did water them all, and the ones in the dirt now have broken root bulbs and are planted in a healthy mix of really good compost and the local dirt.

I think I spent about four hours outside. The neighbor girl, who's about Kouryou-chan's age, is suddenly into talking about God a lot, and I'll have to disappoint PZ Meyers by saying that I didn't say anything to disabuse her of the notions her church feeds into her.

Omaha and Lisa arrived shortly after I'd put the tools away, and Omaha came bearing a bag full of clams. We boiled the clams, roasted potatoes, onions and carrots in a aluminum foil bag, grilled some salmon and made Italian sodas, and our mother's day dinner was delicious for all involved. Lisa brought some really good cheese and watermelon.

Now that was a productive day. The oregano is spreading though, and I have to weed out the space by the house's western wall where grass and blackberries are choking the life out of the old strawberry vines and the mint.