okay so it’s the end of march. as previously stated, blogs don’t suffer from neglect. but perhaps there was an effect on me?

first is of course the gardening news. the seeds are sprouting! so far, three tomato, one eggplant and one very precocious pepper sprout. i am planning to do almost all of the back yard garden from seed this year–it’s much cheaper, sprouts are ridiculously adorable, and most importantly, i thought ahead and started them in time. the average last frost date for phila is 4/14, so i will (somewhat cautiously, as things have been odd weather-wise lately) plant the direct sow (ie–outdoor starters) sometime this week. a delight–the rosemary and thyme have successfully over-wintered; while they remain delicious and thriving, the sage remains to be seen. i have also purchased some proper mini-trellises for the green beans. last year’s were droopy! and the seed potatoes are guaranteed not to have blight. and perhaps, maybe, possibly there will be a small blueberry bush. that’s if we decide we could harvest any out from under the noses (ahem, beaks) of our new bird tenants. (outdoors, no new friends in the house, there isn’t any more room!) they are a collection of sparrows, per usual, and a delightful group of mourning doves. they make me recall fond childhood visits with the paternal granparents. they sit on his office windowsill reminding him of (not-so-fond) childhood mornings being dragged out of bed for school. they are idiotic, and lovely. so far, though, nobody has moved into the birdhouse. it’s quite cozy, the first year it housed some very happy (and very productive) little wrens. at least i think they were wrens.

it’s really very late. i’ve been on a kick of 4am to noon sleep, which feels in some ways lethargy-inducing. need to get back to the far more natural 2am to ten. other news will have to wait. hopefully not two months.

lots to catch up on, but not now. now, just this: rollercoaster ride has begun. now the challenge is to balance all of the things in life i have been enjoying at leisure with the non-stop craziness that is my work schedule for the next month. the birds might get a little cranky with me. the laundry might not get done. the cold-hating herbs might live in the kitchen for a while before i get to harvesting. the new knitting projects, though, should get plenty of time. there are after all dinner breaks.

right. so new bird named salad. he’s lovely. another senegal–it wasn’t our fault, really, the rescue center called us up with a ‘free to a good home’ message, we met the bird, and… well, he’s home. extra-muscled legs with a freakish amount of feathers, a tendency to chew on anything near his beak, a charming upside down pose he strikes when put back into his cage before he was ready to be home, a not-so-charming shoulders up aggression pose when he’s too sleepy to come out, frequent clicking, and a great love of my mediocre singing. he was on a strict junkfood diet, which caused him some joint problems in his feet (resulting in a hilarious, yet sad, tiptoe effect when walking on flat surfaces) and which we are battling to overcome. so far, salad enjoys eating papaya, banana, cranberry, and dried root veggies.

speaking of veggies (which i was, you know…) the carrots have finally sprouted! ridiculous frilly tops, have the sturdy carrots. also, the first few eggplants are growing on the eggplant plant. (hee!) they are making very satisfying progress. the many green bean and zucchini seedlings have been transplanted, most of them survived. of course they reached the appropriate height and strength during the heat wave… so a few fried. but i still have more than enough. back yard is getting crowded.

we have been using the new grill a lot. so easy. so, so easy. and tasty. i could go on, but there’s no need.

what else… ah, yes. surprises. my very sly collection of siblings and cousins threw me a surprise brunch and matinee, on fathers’ day. yes, you see why i was surprised–a couple weeks before my actual expiration date (for those of you who haven’t seen logan’s run, i’m turning 30. and you should see it.) and on somebody else’s holiday. i was easy to fool, being generally agreeable about activities (they pitched a high end audio convention, which my brother and boyfriend would have loved had it been real, and i just said, sure, why not.) it was lovely. brunch place had choices for everyone (yay spinach and chickpea omelette) and the show was a really good try at absurdist theatre, which i like. if only they’d had a professional choreographer and an extra week of rehearsals… wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, which made it all the more special as a choice for me. also, i spent the day covered in feather boas and a pink sparkly tiara.

also was gifted some yarn that is “me” colored, out of which i am told to make stripey knee socks. i can’t complain about the idea, but i might complain once i get to turning the heel, when for some reason the pattern seems to be written in sanskrit.

on a side note, my yoga teacher often slips bits of yoga theory and sanskrit in during class, and i happen to like the sound of the language very much. still meaning to brush up (ahem: relearn) my french and pick up something new. particularly interested in sign language and pretty sounding non-romance varieties… maybe after i learn to play the piano, yet another large project on the list.

okay. enough for one update. i need to get myself to sleep. try now, might make it by 4, 4:30.

egg, that is. sly sprunt managed to lay a fourth at some point. while watering the plants today i accidentally startled her into standing up, and lo! four eggs in the nest. something should be happening right around the first of the month if it will happen at all. i’ve also been witnessing the sweet (yet utterly routine…) feeding ritual. sprocket will gorge on food and then perch unsteadily on the edge of the nest (ie second food bowl.) while sprocket hurks his whole body to come up with food (picture a cat fighting a hairball) sprunt simply tilts her little head up and waits. after she’s had her fill from his beak, sprocket preens her face feathers to remove any missed bits of food. it’s so parental yet spousal at the same time. they have been more quiet and still than i have ever seen, supremely focused.

meanwhile… i now have nine herbs, six veg, a strawberry and a rose bush to plant, in addition to the four packs of vegetable seeds. can’t wait. need more dirt. always more dirt. the first epic battle with weeds has been completed victoriously–now it’s just down to diligent guerrilla warfare. and i suppose some sort of imagining to raise several of the planters off the ground to achieve greater amounts of light for the many crowded plants as they grow taller. finally getting a good start to the backyard garden, much later than usual. especially for the seeds. ah well, if the early fall stays warm i’ll be able to keep growing. mmmm, dinner from the backyard.  

the other night, we discovered steve the snake in a decidedly surprising position. he had recently shed, and because i like to disturb him as little as possible when he’s about to/in process of/just finishing a shed, i hadn’t yet taken the old skin out of the tank. and then…

he crawled back into his own skin, wearing it in the opposite direction.

i can think of no instinctual or beneficial purpose for this behavior. and so i ask, are snakes capable of allegory? of course i was prompted to recall the many instances, thankfully most of them in the pre-teen years and somewhat softened by distance, in which i wanted to crawl out of my skin. have new skin. turn my skin inside out. not have any skin showing at all.

and i wonder how many skins i’ve had, and if i would fit, or want to fit, in an old one. and i wonder what kind of brains and thoughts snakes have. does steve remember being a baby? does he remember when he last ate or only notice if he’s hungry? does he really remember who i am? does it matter?

he crawled back into his own skin… 

it must be spring, the lovebirds are at it again. the first egg was a ‘misfire’ and landed on the bottom of the cage. the poor thing was crushed. i took it to the kitchen to investigate. after opening it onto a plate, we discovered that it was indeed another empty egg, and nothing to be sad about. i have to say–a cracked open love bird egg is CREEPY. very perfectly egg-like and tiny. it looks like there may be a second one brewing, whether empty or not… in the meantime, it’s fun to see sprunt with a swollen belly while sprocket is on guard duty, and these resourceful yet idiotic birds seem to have nested in the food bowl again.

 it also means it’s time for me to clear the weeds out from the back yard garden and start thinking of seeds. SEEDS! the peppers and herbs are always fantastic. what else for this year? maybe squash again? do i bother with the tomatoes that hate philly water? green beans, we love those. beets???

germs, naturally. they have staged epic snotty battle against myself, my boy and my brother, so our visit to the boston branch has been postponed. my nephew dutifully threw something on the ground and pronounced ‘boom! ground!’ (or rather, ‘gwoud!’) over the phone as a preview.  on the plus side, i speak a-la-turner for a few days. yes, kathleen and tina alternate in my cords.

also, we lost power to the whole house yesterday. warm water funneling into the fish and turtle tanks… birds huddled together under towels… and one chilly snake held close to my heart for hours and hours waiting for the electrician to arrive. who, as it turns out, was the guy who finally figured out the problem with our comcast service two years ago. we like him.

definitely sleep time. more updates after i quell the invaders. as a sneak peak–we have painted another room!

since i last wrote (not too long ago, this time)

a very nice lazy afternoon spent on the green couch, with soup, tea, meandering conversation and some knitting.

made very difficult by the nasty slice in my right index finger i acquired moron fashion by playing with a soda can top. nothing like a little adrenaline and a lot of inconvenience to kick start productivity…

also we picked up fred today. as we have a cement backyard, we had him cremated. they put his ashes into a very simple box, and kept some of the feathers. it was one of those situations where a stranger is trying to be nice and helpful and inadvertently makes a mistake–other than the (freak) yellow tail feather, which was my favorite and specifically requested, they chose–well, strangely. but he is back home with us and, though very, yes, strange, it feels like the right choice.

so my brain is lazy. odd, unusual, abnormal, weird, curious, other, etc.

the aforementioned soup was a tomato lentil–ingredients bought earlier in the day from the italian market (a total cost, i am proud to report, of $2) and tossed into my slightly inadequate 8qt pot. as usual, i reminded myself to put a 10 or even 12qt pot on  my wish list. and i cemented the decision to get an immersion blender. transferring batches of soggy vegetables (which have _still_ not broken apart after far too much cooking) into our small cuisinart and making a silly mess is perhaps an activity i can do without. i have already had creamy vegetable soups (with proper texture) floating through my cooking dreams.

also a character in the soup was the new aero garden basil. it is busily outstripping the other herbs, and some heavy pruning will be necessary to keep the poor parsley and mint from having to grow in the dark. the large leaves of this basil, in fact are quite minty. proximity in this case is coincidental–did you all know that basil and mint are in the same family?

what else. we have just watched several episodes of simpsons season 10. i seem to have missed many that year. it was the year simpsons went all digital–lost some of the color nuances, improvement in sound.

but i babble. it is officially nighttime and i am pumpkined strangely early.

gingersnaps, that is. the project of the evening. and one of my favorite signs of fall.

most present thought today on the current show is that the costumes are gorgeous, lush, sassy, thoughtful, delightful in every way. even if it’s for just this reason, come see, come see.

i just watched steve (the very small and awfully friendly milk snake who lives down the hall with some other spritely neighbors) ingest quite a bit of sand with his dinner. mostly because he approached dinner left foot first, rather than head. i wonder–was he thinking, i wish i had hands to clean this sand off my mouth with (yes, snakes have a good understanding of dangling participles) or was he thinking, why do i live in sand? if the latter, i would tell him it is so that we can observe the lovely serpentine paths of travel.

hmmm. what else. oh yes! a confirmed sister visit is happening soon. a parental visit just passed (more on that later, there are some chatty thoughts to discuss from our tourist-y excursions.)

i’m beginning to alter my perspective in order to prepare for all of the 10am performances for this show. meaning, 2:18 feels soporific.  bed time for bonzo. (a saying of mine, the source of which i can’t remember…who is bonzo? not gonzo, not bozo…hmm.) in any case, i’m off. i won’t promise, but more babble is at least likely soon.

i apparently talk in my sleep, giving every impression of having woken up. this is a family trait. one of my fondest memories of my father when i was a child was of him responding “how about grilled cheese?” when we pounced on the bed asking if he intended to make pancakes or waffles. my brother in his high school years used to flail his arms in a punch-like fashion–we’d have to wake him by tapping on a toe. my sister when young used to sleep walk; more than once we found her asleep in the bathtub. i used to sleep so heavily that i have continued slumbering after being tossed out of bed by a minor earthquake. this has changed. the other night (i am told) i told my boy as he was climbing into bed and preparing to snuggle me that his hands smelled like turtle food. whoops.

 but really my point of the question is a challenge: beat fred’s startled awake response. he had been napping on my collarbone (one of his favorite spots) while i watched an episode of csi (one of my favorite shows, especially when i’m trying to get tired.) when i put my hand on his back to wake him, he blinked, cocked his head left and said “woohoo!”

and then he yawned, glared at me a second, and went right back to sleep…