On this rainy, chilly day I find myself alone in the house for the first time in over a week. My in-laws are here, and over the weekend we had a crazy house full of friends and family – eight adults and two kids, all sleeping over. I love extending the dining table to the point that it hardly fits the dining room, and everyone gathering around for a home-cooked meal. A friend of Amie’s came over for a play date and found herself at that table for a late lunch and for a moment I could see it all through her eyes: crazy, heart warming pandemonium!

On Sunday morning one of our friends, a string instrument maker and viola player, took out her viola and Amie brought out her cello. They played together seriously for a while, until the audience could no longer hold it in. All the instruments came out of the wood works: our African drum, a recorder (played orally and nasally), flutes of all kinds and materials, an “Indian violin” (one string strung on a coconut shell with an animal skin stretched over it), and a yardstick for a baton, with a warning to the self-assigned conductor not to emulate the unfortunate Lully, who died of gangrene in the foot after stabbing himself with his conducting staff. There were also many voices, ululation and, last but not least, the kazoo. This went on for over an hour and ended with everyone in stitches.

Today the rain and quiet are welcome and I have a moment to list what is growing. Of the medicinals the following managed to germinate: Lobelia, Astragulus, Yellow Dock, Motherwort, St John’s wort (2 out of 25 seeds), Selfheal, Echinacea, Hyssop (only 1 out of hundreds of seeds), marshmallow and horehound. No Aconite, Boneset or Giant Solomon’s Seal yet, nor is the broadcast stinging nettle showing itself.  But all the Goji berries germinated:  Goji forest here we come! The sweet potatoes decided not to grow any shoots, so on the advice of my MIL I turned them upside down, dug out some of the flesh, and filled the resulting cup with water. If I don’t see shoots in the next week I’ll have to order slips.

The chicks are growing like crazy, all cozy in their brooder, and the rather quarrelsome hens are laying 3-4 eggs a day. They were quarreling, quite too early in the morning, for the one nest box they all want to use. There are two, but they always chose the one that is a little bit larger. Sometimes I’d see to chickens in there, all smushed inside, quarreling. I hadn’t seen an egg in the other box for months. A visitor wondered whether that was because the big ox had a fake egg in it. I put it there to dissuade the hens from pecking their eggs, but perhaps… I found another fake egg and placed it in the other box.  That day they four eggs were evenly divided between the two boxes. Like the fake egg bestowed legitimacy on that space. Why not.

Next weekend is our big Earth Day weekend, and my own Open House  is among the attractions. I had hoped to get the irrigation – the rainwater harvesting as well as the drip system – in, but no luck. I had also hoped to be at two hives instead of one but my new bee package was delayed by a week.

Spring mode! It was 72 degrees today and sunny with a light breeze. I was in the garden as much as possible these last two days.

I planted two paw paws in a corner of the garden that previously held a leaf pile. What gorgeous soil I found there! From now on: leaf piles all over the lace! I also moved two elderberries from the front, where they were being overwhelmed by undesired brambles. I sowed lupine (a legume, so a nitrogen fixer) all around the trees and the bushes, as well as borage. I also made a spot n the edge of the forest for stinging nettle.

I transplanted lots of strawberries which a friend had left over. Also brassicas (collards, broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts) in the rhubarb bed – I thought rhubarb  was indestructible but one of the two seems to have perished.  Amie and I transplanted lettuce, kale, chard and parsley into one 4×4′ bed and then I transplanted more kale, also radichetta, lettuce, mache, minutina and more parsley into a 4×8′ bed. All were covered with row cover to protect the little seedlings until they’re established.

And then there was consolidating compost piles, treating the berry bushes to some top dressed compost and moving leaves and sticks and leaves. Oh, and stones.

I did a hive inspection of the remaining colony and found the queen. She is looking great and doing well. There are lots of eggs and larva as well as capped brood, all in the right formation. The workers looked fat and healthy. I slid a sticky board underneath the screened bottom board and in three days will pull it to count the mite fall. Then I’ll know if I need to treat for mites or not.

The two tiny chicks are growing rapidly and getting louder too. No issues there, aside from the fact that one is still anonymous.

We’re looking at a couple of days of rain and a drop in temperatures, though apparently not below freezing. I’ll be sowing many more seeds for the lights in the basement, now that there is room again. And I’ll be admiring my line-up of sweet potatoes. Quite a sight on my windowsill!