#58 Mom Stuff And A Real Garden Hack This Time
I have never gotten a diamond tennis bracelet for Mother’s Day.
I’m pretty cool with that.
And happy with the fact that the day tends to be pretty low key. Festivities consist mainly of breakfast in bed and a nice batch of fresh flowers.
(When the kids were young it also tended to feature gifts whose manufacture was envisioned and supervised by grade school teachers. God bless those teachers.)
The “breakfast in bed” part has been an evolving experience.
There were the early days where hubby made everything and gave the kids a nice little job they could handle like buttering the toast.
Followed by the gradual progression of child responsibility expansion. (Here’s to all the moms who choke down undercooked eggs and burnt toast with a smile.)
Now everyone is grown and the menu has definitely gotten a quality upgrade. All my kids love to cook and I get to reap the benefit.
One thing that hasn’t changed is this game we play.
Where I wait patiently in bed pretending I’m not “up” yet until just before a tray arrives.
I can smell the food. I can hear the banter between the cooks.
My mouth is watering and my stomach is growling and I’m not sure I can stand to play even one more game of solitaire on my phone.
It’s to tempting to just go and join in - throw tradition to the wind and eat at the table with everyone.
But I can’t bring myself to do that. It feels like taking something away from them - like it’s wrong to get dressed and start my day before the eggs and bacon have made their way to the bedroom.
Part of the unwritten contract between the breakfast makers and the breakfast eater involves sustaining the illusion that I haven’t been upstairs twiddling my thumbs for two hours.
No one asks me to do this.
I probably don’t still need to do this.
But I do.
Because I dearly love my kids and our Mother’s Day rituals.
I wouldn’t change them for a hundred tennis bracelets.
Copyright© 2024 Anne Morse Hambrock All rights reserved.
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A Real Garden Tip
My part of the country is tricky when it comes to growing certain crops. As I have mentioned before, it’s not usually a good idea to plant tomatoes and peppers outdoors before Memorial Day Weekend - sometimes not even before June. There are too many risk factors.
But, if you wait to buy your plants until it’s safe to put them in, you will most likely find empty shelves at the garden center. (We’ve already discussed my dismal track record with planting from seed - see Issue #47)
And if you buy plants in those little containers and just sit on them for a couple weeks they will be completely rootbound when you go to take them out.
So for the past couple of years I have compromised. I buy everything nice and early while there is still a good selection and then transplant to “incubator” pots. Those long window box ones work pretty well.
This lets me put everything out in the garden during the warm sunny days and then put stuff back in a sheltered, or even indoor, spot whenever the temps suddenly drop or the skies open up with seedling crushing deluges.
The plants have plenty of space to expand their root systems and seem pretty happy later when I transition them to the main garden.
Just don’t crowd the boxes.
Happy gardening!
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