What's my name? Where do I work again?

(Sigh). I'm back at work.

(pffffffffffffft. That's the sound of me being deflated). I have been back now for 4 days, and I think it was a terrible idea. I should have taken 3 weeks off. Except I had a lot to do this week and next week, they're sending me to Winnipeg on a 6 a.m. flight. In Gennyland math, that means I have to get up at 4, and leave the house at 4:30.

Complain complain complain.

Vacation ended, not a whole heck of a lot got done on the house but we're in good shape, I cleaned it about 48 times - or rather, swept the floors 48 times - and spent a bunch of time sitting on my arse. Summer's in full swing now, so I don't spend a lot of time in the garden, which is ironic. I almost can't - it's been taken over by borage and that stuff is prickly. I dislike it. I am slowly ripping it out, as I discover it smothering or shading my prized peppers, tomatoes, beans, and other things you can actually eat.

So far everything's doing really well, though I am worried about the lack of blooms so far. The tomatoes are blooming, sort of, and the beans have started, but the squash and cukes are still bare. The bonus is that I haven't seen any cucumber beetles yet. The pumpkins are ready to burst forth with new life; I think there will be blooms by this weekend. Sunday - I'm calling it. I will let you know. They're doing really really well.

Therefore, I really hope that frost comes late this year, because it seems I will have a lot of things on the vine in September. Thems squash need time to get big and the plants are still teensy.

Cilantro's completely taken everything over, but I'm going to start ripping it out because it's all gone to flower. Next year maybe I'll start anew, and have it grow only where I want it to grow. I guess I can plant it in the fall - or just scatter the seeds willy-nilly, which seems to work just fine.

Lettuce is getting ready to bolt but I continue to eat it - this variety doesn't seem to go bitter, which is really nice. Usually I miss my lettuce by waiting too long. We've been putting it on everything but could have salads every night for 2 weeks on my supply. Swiss chard is coming up, so before it gets big I'm going to have to figure out what the heck one does with Swiss chard. The peppers look like they're ready to bloom - the plants are short but stocky and dark green and hardy-looking, so I'm happy about that, seeing as I grew them from seed. Now I need diatomaceous earth to keep the earwigs out, those slimy little bastards. I'm disappointed in the output of my rhubarb - the stalks were all skinny, so I didn't pull them out, and now the leaves are all spotting and withering. It does this every year. I think it's very old, possibly spent. Maybe I need to rip it out and plant a new rhubarb bush in a new spot for next year.

I have plums. Not many clean ones but I have plums. The tree was filled to the brim with them, but they've slowly begun succumbing to the same disease they get every year, but I have my fingers crossed that because I had so many green ones, there will be at least a few that make it this year. I am encouraged by this not to rip the tree down, but to try to fix it for next year. The trick to the great output seems to have been to cut off all the non-producing branches, because the tree itself seems to be quite happy. I'm not sure if it's a disease, or bugs (curculio? caterpillars?), or something nutritionally wrong - or all three frankly - but I'd like to get a professional opinion before this happens again next year.

The flower gardens are typical of my summer flower gardens - messy, weedy, the large plants are in the front and the small plants are in the back, being dwarfed. I am no landscape architect or garden designer. My interest in horticulture is scientific, I seem to have zero aesthetic abilities. Why would anyone put Veronica in the front? Shasta daisies? To be fair, I think those migrated, but still. Now I have to wait until they're done blooming to move them to the back. Meanwhile, I had columbines at one point, but I have no idea what happened to them, and my hens and chicks have been engulfed. The whole thing is shot through with quack grass and these unruly prickly things with yellow flowers that get tall, and of course raspberries. The dread black raspberries, which tangle everything up. I need to trellis them but have of course been too lazy to do so.

I had a ton of grapes but now I have none. Bugs? Birds? Whatever, now I have tons of grape stems. Probably for the best, grapes are poisonous to dogs.

Anyway, that's the yard update. I have to whippersnip because it hasn't been done in a month and everything's shaggy. I figure, since my house is under construction and I am back at work, that's the least of my concerns.