Little things

It's been nine days since my last post. I thought, well, not much has been going on. But that means I only post when the material comes easy, and that's not really fair to the community. So, here's a list of the little things.

1. We picked a quart of strawberries a day for two weeks from the plants in our six earth boxes along the driveway. I got sick of strawberries this year, for the first time in my life. They're done now, and in a couple of weeks they'll be cut back or pulled up and replaced by their runners for next year.

2. We're now in a contest with the peas. Can they produce pods faster than we can eat them? They're planted in a four by eight raised bed. Very few have made it to the kitchen; Art and I stand outside and eat them in the sunshine. We're almost sick of peas. A good thing, too, as the plants are getting pale, one by one, which means it's time to pull them up to make room for the bean plants coming up right behind them.

3. Last year the end of the tomato season left several hundred green tomatoes on the plants. The weather never warmed enough to ripen them. This year will be different. Already the cherry tomatoes are getting pink. Next week it will be time to start picking tomatoes.

We have four raised beds, each four by eight feet. Not a lot of garden. But enough to keep us busy.

4. The little girl next door has a piercing high giggle. This morning I heard it outside, accompanied by several other shrieky voices. I figured the neighborhood kids were playing in the inflatable water structure our neighbors bought for when their grandkids visit. I was right. Thirty minutes later, all was quiet on the property to the north. I love the sounds - and the silence.

5. We've ordered the Netflix disks for season five of Friday Night Lights. The first four seasons we watched on streaming Netflix during the last two months. Love the show. Love it. Love the values of the characters, the pace, the dialogue, the integrity of the production. I will miss it.

6. I just finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. Oh, my. It will change the way I eat. Glad to have found the book at the library after several people recommended it to me.

7. We leave for Alaska early Monday morning for a weeklong visit with my sister and her husband. Alyx (sister) is cooking "Daddy's spaghetti" Monday night. One of our oldest comfort foods, even coming from a dysfunctional childhood. The elders are all gone now, so we're the new elders, and we're much more functional. We've worked on it, though.

8. My granddaughter Mary's glasses arrived and she opened the box last night at her dad's house. She is wearing them most of the time, so far, thinks she looks very cool, and says she can see the TV and the computer and books easier. Her twin sister Malayne thinks she looks weird.

9. I am a believer in logical consequences for choices we make. I'm curious to see how many more people vote in the next election, and what kind of people we put in office. We live in interesting times.

10. I am playing online scrabble games with a niece and a friend. They win almost every time. It's good for the character.