June 8, 2010
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Long time no write….
The garden has been in since May 15. I have been happily digging in the dirt since mid-April. I just didn’t care about snow, wind, sleet and gloom of night any more. The 4-H plant sale was the weekend after Mother’s Day and I planted and planted and planted. My eyes were so much bigger than my space when I ordered that there are now growing things in every available corner of my little world. In the garden spot I have 3 Big Boy tomatoes, 3 cherry tomatoes and three Roma tomatoes. Yes there will be many tomatoes. 3 egglants sit merrily behind the tomatoes along with marigolds, basil, oregano, thyme, chives and parsley. Meanwhile int he second bed, added this spring, there are 3 zucchini, a row of swiss chard, a row of green beans, cilantro and zinnias. Next to that by a large stump, upon which I have placed the dish of a bird bath, there are glorious little sunflowers and some really cranky giant sunflowers who require constant soothing talk. And there is nothing to do now but pull the occassional weed and wait for the harvest.
Meanwhile, summer reading has started and I am in full crazy mode. We signed up 63 kids yesterday which doesn’t sound like much until you remember that our entire pre-k – 5 population is 350, and most of these children live in the village and if my math is correct (which it probably isn’t) that’s like 5% of our elementary population. I’ll take it. Visits from the companion dogs and hot dog lunch and afternoon crafts fill day 2.
I spend the summer feeling like the White Rabbit….rush, rush, rush, oh dear, oh my.
And so it goes.
Comments (7)
Your garden sounds delicious and beautiful. I’m excited to read more about its progress and your eventual harvest. I wish I liked tomatoes more. I keep telling myself I’m going to head to Goodwill for a large pot for making stock and sauce and such in, but I haven’t done it yet. It’ll happen soon, though. The vegetable ends I’ve saved for stock are starting to get unhappy in my fridge. The frozen chicken carcass will keep, but not indefinitely.
What are the best five books you’ve read lately?
That’s great about the summer reading program. It sounds like a lot of kids to me because it is more that the number of kids in our school! I don’t think many of our kids participate in the library summer reading program because they all live in the country and their parents don’t make the effort. But I was handing out books like crazy the last week of school – little readers I had duplicates of. So hopefully many of them will still do some reading this summer.
@BoureeMusique - Will Grayson, Will Grayson; Word After Word After Word are two YA and Middle Grade novels I’ve read that I loved. Mostly I have been reading poetry. Mary Oliver is soothing the soul at the moment.
@DMMeyer - We are fortunate that most of our kids walk and we are the only game in town so that is good for our numbers. I also spend a day at the elementary school pitching the program. Our program is based on library use and NOT time spent reading or pages read or any of that. No records for the parents to keep and lots of prizes and things to do. My line to the kids is “Who doesn’t like cheap plastic stuff?” and they all giggle and laugh and no one raises their hand. They have to borrow and return books to get prizes which builds good library manners AND intrigues them. The parents love that there is no record keeping. The program has turned more than one child into a reader so I am pleased.
@csn71650 - I think that might be the big piece that we are missing – no one comes out to the school to pitch the program. Gotta contact the library and suggest it. Our school is so small, we don’t even have a real school library. We have that on our wish list, but it never seems to happen. But we do need to do a field trip in town to visit the library. Next year. Promise.
BTW – love the no-record-keeping bit. That’s a seller.
@DMMeyer - What’s your library district and do they HAVE a summer reading program? I would be happy to send information and statistics. Visiting the elementary school is the key – our numbers reflect that in the year I didn’t go. It was bad. Send me a message if you want more info.
@csn71650 - They have a summer reading program – I just read about it in the local paper. I’m not sure about the district – how is that determined?
@DMMeyer - If you send me the name of your local library, I’ll find it. A library district is determined by which library thinks they serve what population. Here in Ohio they are either regional, county or local and that determines funding. Most of us just care that the people get served and we don’t really care what library folks visit but we try not to extend programming into locations that aren’t “officially” ours.