Shalom, chaver

One of my oldest friends passed on this evening. It will be hard to sleep without him cuddled up and purring beside me, waiting for my first stir in the morning to nudge me out of bed to get him breakfast.

Motek, somehow fate led you to be found by me instead of the nasty and brutish life as a Middle Eastern street cat that seemed pre-prepared for you. I'm so grateful. We're so grateful. You are deeply, deeply missed.

Shalom, chaver. Ya khatouli. 'Ain, 'ain b'olam. Lila tov, Motek.

what awaits the "last spring frost" (April 15)

Despite the fact it may get up to 90 (!) this week, the average last frost tends to coincide with the tax deadline. Here's my garden layout as of yesterday, when I stopped by to start my "potatoes in a barrel" scheme, as well as to transplant dill, cilantro, parsley and thai basil and harvest some asparagus. If I was less of a risk taker and had more room under the grow lights, the dill and thai basil would still be indoors until the 18th, when I'll transplant pretty much everything I've started indoors.

You can't see 'em, but there actually are very small spinach and lettuce plants sprouting up. The peas, however, did not make it. Each year I've tried, they've eluded me in separate ways. Meep meep.

My garlic is doing quite well. It's all cloves I bought from the co-op or farmers market over the past three years that planted after they started to sprout, and which subsequently produced seeds. Onions are not too shabby either. The big ones are from seeds I planted last year. And Ed the raspberry is almost getting so big that a pruning will be in order this coming winter/spring.