I've been doing pretty well with my "exercise 30 minutes, 5 days a week" intention - I got it done 4 days last week and that's 4 more days than the week before. That, my friends, is progress.
Saturday started off a great weekend with a visit to the local farmers market to pick up our CSA box. In our box this week was: kale, chard, beets, rainbow carrots, broccoli, a lovely head of lettuce, and some pea sprouts. So far we've just had the broccoli, steamed, with some yummy salmon and orzo salad, but I've big plans for the chard (wilted with onion and garlic, then tossed with vinegar), carrots (chopped up for snacking while at work), and beets (cook with a little vinegar then chuck them into a salad with the lettuce and sprouts. I found an interesting recipe for kale and prosciutto casserole that might need to be attempted this weekend, too.
Sunday included an hour/15 miles of bike riding followed by a walk to a local Greek restaurant for lunch. We were lucky that the weather allowed us to sit outside while we ate, for the first time in quite a while. TCB and I talked while we ate and relaxed, and it was wonderful. Finally, I finished up the day with a visit to my (poor, neglected) plot at the community garden and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Yes, most things have dried up and withered, but my strawberry plant is still there as is the African Blue Basil (now about four feet wide and just about as tall), two little chard plants that have sprung from nowhere, my parsley, the dwarf lime and clementine trees (complete with baby limes and clementines!), and nearly all of the flower garden (picture below is from last Spring when we planted it).
I'm ready to get back into the garden. Started last night, as a matter of fact, with a nice session of weeding and pruning (dear God, how the sweet peas have taken over everything!). Still more weeding needs to be done as well as spraying the gypsum stuff TCB bought last year to try to help with all of the clay in the soil. (Or is it the soil in my clay? Not sure.) Probably need another few bags of soil, too, but we might be OK with just turning everything over really deeply and then fertilizing. This year I'm going to go a little smaller, though, and not try to cultivate 500 different plants which gets a little overwhelming. Much like other parts of my life, I think moderation will probably be the key to success for my veggie, fruit, and flower garden, too.
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