A Pictureless Post

Ugh.  Yesterday was one of those days where nothing was going right.  The glasses place couldn't fix Squiddle's favorite pair of frames that broke. My phone case snapped. Apparently there was an issue with an Amazon order so the birthday and Christmas gifts didn't ship for our belated my-side-of-the-family party today.  By the time evening rolled around, I declared it was a hungry-people-get-to-forage-for-themselves-(small-ones-getting-help-from-their-parents-of-course) evening meal.

Bright spots: Jazzy is now confirmed to be going on the bus to and from school, starting on Tuesday.  His pickup and drop-off location is the same as Squiddle's, and his pickup time only six minutes earlier.  (Drop-off is about four hours earlier, because preschool has a really short day.)  And I found some canning jars at the thrift store, along with a couple skeins of cotton yarn for my mother, and a couple fat quarters of fabric that are making me want to participate in a sew-along.

And, it now officially being The Depths Of Winter, I've been looking at seed catalogs and perusing the future fruit tree offerings of online nurseries.  I'm considering a persimmon tree to complete the apple/apple/quince square.  And maybe a combo plum tree and a combo cherry tree along the part of the back fence that doesn't run afoul of the septic leach field.  (A combo apricot/nectarine/peach would be glorious as well, as would a pie cherry tree.)  The part of the fence near the leach field I have mentally tagged for blueberries, lingonberries, and grapes, which are theoretically all shallow-rooted enough that they shouldn't grow into the septic pipes.  Whenever we get a greenhouse, I'll add potted pomengranates and citrus to that list.

For seeds, well.  I've had cardboard laid down over part of where I want a bed around the back of the house, hopefully starting to smother the grass there.  And I want it to be a flower bed.  But given the rampant rabbits in the neighborhood, it will be a flower bed with a nice thick border of chives.  And I want to put some rhubarb and asparagus plants in it too, since they'll need at least three years to establish themselves before I can start to harvest.  And asparagus is a pretty backdrop anyway, once it gets past the edible spear shape.

For a fenced-off veggie garden (the beds of which will need mesh on the bottom too, because voles), I'm thinking small and basic this year, to be expanded in future years as needs grow.  Strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, carrots, radishes, parsnips, and maybe zucchini if I can trellis it.  Maybe greens to overwinter next year, if I finagle up some hoop houses.

I look wistfully at the roses in the catalogs, but unless I can fit any in that along-the-house bed, that may not be this year.  I'd love to replace the overgrown shrubs in the front with roses, lavender, and tea bushes, but I'm already in for a lot of work as it is.  And we're planning on staying here for years and years and years, so I've got time, right?