Emerald beetle (carrion beetle?) came out from under a log as we were pulling trash out of The Land.
Fiddleheads near the driveway.
We also found MANY more trillium.
And new greens coming up that may or may not be lilies-of-the-valley.
Marsh and I took the dogs (basenjis only need apply) and accomplished very little on the scale of “concrete tasks with immediately gratifying visible results,” but quite a lot on the scale of “figuring shit out, learning how to listen to each other, and trusting in progress despite lack of immediately gratifying visible results.”
Put a couple of cranks on the basement jack.
Did NOT have to run the sillcock. Also did not hear back from the water quality lab yet.
Received a mother’s day present for Marsh via mail delivery. The carrier had wrapped the box in plastic on the front step. I am loving small town life.
Looked at the downstairs and upstairs spaces sans inside staircase, and prepared for the next rounds of discussion about room layouts.
Tried to push ahead on the garden. Catalogued the few packets of seeds we had with us. Danger of frost (amazingly) is not quite past. Analyzed pictures we’ve taken of The Land with sun at different times of day. Finished raking out the area that might be vegetables. Dug a hole to sample the soil, which is heavily graveled, but otherwise looks healthy — good drainage, I think, and not sandy or clayey. But not easy to till. We placed large stakes to help visualize the space. We discussed pros and cons of raised beds, and catalogued the lumber available (of which there is a large variety). We tried to explain to each other what we each meant by “plan” and “bed” and discussed the layout of the yard in terms of grids and in terms of aesthetics and Etc.
On the way back to Buxton, all of that distilled down to: We have a guiding principle. For each crop, we will figure out the appropriate location (sun, soil, water), the appropriate container, shape, boundary, layout… We will proceed crop by crop. It won’t — necessarily — be according to how “a garden should look” (if that even means anything).
Everything will have a reason.
If the reasons are wrong, we’ll correct them next season. Everything will still have a reason.