It’s that time of year again.

The Great Glebe Garage Sale is tomorrow and for some reason, I'm not as excited as I have been in previous years. Maybe it's because I'm nervous about walking for 5 hours straight, or finding myself without access to a bathroom, or because I feel like our house is already on the verge of becoming one of the places featured on that show Hoarders, but I am approaching this GGGS cautiously.

Every year, I have wandered the streets of the Glebe on the last Saturday in May thinking "man, if I was expecting a baby, this place would be mecca." However. I have since changed my tune. Already I'm feeling like the basement is filling up with other peoples' baby stuff, which I've politely been accepting but secretly feel like I really just want to buy all my own stuff new. No offense to any of my generous friends. That's part of the fun of having a baby, after all – buying baby stuff – and finally I'm allowed to. Also, lots of people have given me cute boy things and while I'm open to putting a girl in boys' clothes, there are limits, so I've picked through and found the gender-neutralest ones. Not to mention that I had a baby shower, with one more to come, and people have been so generous buying and making us stuff throughout so we're in really good shape stuff-wise. My kid already dresses better than I do and she's not even born yet.

The list of baby things I might want from the GGGS has now been whittled down, and includes: a cool old (but safe, don't freak out) high chair, infant lifejacket if I see one, interesting kids' books (as always), and maybe some toys like blocks or something classic, for later. As for the rest of the list, I am always looking for things for the garden (interesting pots, bits of kooky metal that I can stick here and there as decoration, etc), things for the future cottage, things to use up at the lake, and plants. Always plants. I'm thinking of planting a whack of different ferns and other large shade plants near the staircase leading into our yard, and sometimes there are interesting ferns to be had at the GGGS. If I see a neat large Persian rug I will also consider it. As well as baskets – I like baskets - and a badminton net and backgammon set.

I may also buy some old stuffed toys for Rosie, so she can toss them around and chew them up and there won't be any tragic loss, and maybe so that I can have a stash for when stuffed toys start coming in for the baby. So far, every stuffed toy that enters the house is highly coveted by Rosie, so that I have to hide them all. She goes mental, as though I'm holding a live partridge or something. Now, when she wants to go for a baby stuffy, I will instead produce a Rosie stuffy and try to teach her the difference between the two. Ha.

Another thing I'm nervous about is carrying stuff around. I guess I'll just bring a backpack and make hubby carry most of the load, since I'm already CARRYING HIS CHILD.

Speaking of said child, she is getting to the size now where her once-adorable little flutters have turned into sharp jabs in the bladder. Yesterday I felt her head through my gut, so now I can give her a solid poke if she hurts me. I'm kidding, I'm not about corporal punishment. But I'd like to figure out how to convince her to shift a bit because right now (at 29 weeks) she's breech. I guess there's lots of time for her to flip still, but my tummy's a bit lopsided as a result. Her wee shoulder blade appears to sit squarely under my bellybutton, which feels hella weird. I also lost two pounds in the past two weeks, which they say is fine since it's been +1,200 degrees outside and I've just sweated it all out, and don't feel like eating when it's so hot. Also I've been really active, gardening, going up to the land, etc. so no surprise, really. I've still gained 15 lbs overall, so all's well.

The garden is another story. Every year I go into it thinking I've got a nice plan, everything will be planted in careful tidy rows, I will employ companion planting to maximize space and harvest, and I will only grow things that we can feasibly eat. And every year that plan gets messed up. I go into the garden in late May with good intentions to turn the soil, work in more earth and compost, take out all the weeds, build up nice straight rows (and mounds for the squash). Then I look around and realize that well, one corner is dominated by rhubarb, the other has two blueberry plants in it that I stuck there last year, the back row's taken up with the garlic I planted in fall, the cilantro's already started occupying the entire central area of the garden, the strawberries have all migrated into the pathways, one whole side has been reclaimed by the lawn, the leeks that I planted about 4 years ago are up again and are STILL not big enough to make one decent soup, and there's mint coming up all over the damn place. And I'm seven months pregnant. I end up not turning the soil for fear of disturbing the things that are perennial to the garden, so I just sort of gamely work in bits of compost here and there where the precious annual plants go (tomatoes, peppers, squash). I try to do it all in one evening because I am impatient, and once I'm in there, the bugs are so bad that I don't bother weeding, I just sort of use the hand-rake to muck up the cracked, hardscrabble earth, yank out some quack grass, and drop a bunch of seeds in a relatively straight row. I pat the rows closed, smack a few mosquitos, and move on to the next seed packet in a frenzied rush to move faster than the blackflies.

I had 23 tomato seedlings in the grow-op. I put them in the garden, and two days later I have 11. My squash seedlings are up, and I put in four jalapeno peppers that I bought (so they have a fighting chance). I did some emergency work on the tomatoes last night so they should make it. I also was pleasantly surprised to find that the broccoli seeds I half-heartedly stuck in around the garlic have all come up and are now healthy-looking three-inch seedlings. Last night I planted cucumbers in and around the cilantro, and zucchini in and around the leeks. I have four basil plants – three regular and one thai – adjacent to the tomatoes, and marigolds throughout. I'll take some photos once things start coming up because frankly, the garden looks like crap right now. This weekend I need to find a rich sunny spot for some watermelon seeds…. Hm hm hm. They may be relegated to a large pot of somesort.

It's been unseasonably warm, so we're tricked into thinking everything's GOT TO GO IN OR ELSE, but really, it's only late May. My pots are all done up on the deck (though the plants are still wee) and most of the garden's in, so I'm in good shape. All I have to do now is weed the perennial garden, plant the ferns and shade plants I'm getting tomorrow at the GGGS, and do some tidying, and then I can just sit back and drink iced tea and gestate.