The fig shuffle---that's all I ever did this past two weeks with the temperature dipping down and  the rain pouring and the sun playing peekaboo. Bringing them in my already tight-spaced home at night, and taking them out in the morning to catch what little sunlight falls on my porch. Then the rain got me wrapping the fig pots with garbage bags so as not  to get them over-soaked. The unpredictable weather has got the plants confused somehow.   Over the weekend, I followed the sunspots in my wee yard to get my figs leafing out. At one point, my neighbor actually caught me talking to my fig tree. He could not contain himself and asked, "Are you talking to your plant?"
And I said, "But of course!" [ I need to give them a lot of lovin' if I am to eat sweet figs this summer!] My mom and Dad used to leave the radio on with smooth music playing for their myriad of  orchids to enjoy.

Fig tree sleepsover inside on chilly nights

outside basking in the sun

hardy chicago budding so painfully slow

i already lost two figs from all the shuffling

white and pink bleeding hearts are not as robust as last spring's

Sunday afternoon all by my lonesome BUT not lonely. Aahhh, peace and quiet, this time is all mine,  today. I brew some tea, (multi-task a little bit to use my precious time wisely, which means do some laundry) and while the laundry is churning I put on channel 884 for some peaceful, sometimes melancholic scoundscape music. You might be wondering what I I did with my boys, I sent them to some friends (house)they met at the park for playdate. Zachary by now is playing with Ethan, and Steve is playing guitar with Ethan's Dad. I was actually invited to this family playdate but I declined earlier in the week thinking I will do some gardening, but today is such a rainy day gardening is just out of the question. Well, I never run out of things to do around the house, so I did some straightening in the bedrooms and kitchen while facebooking and blogging and chatting with my nephew in faraway Dubai, sweeping and vacumming and aarrghh...throwing papers and junkmail away! I look out the window and love the pouring of rain. Drinking tea goes very well with rainwatching and listening to soundscape music. I relish the peace and quiet.

glorious rain pouring down
note our first ripe strawberry in Spring

Zachary's waiting for this day of ripening

for the day of ripening is the day of reckoning

Hihhh..hiihhh...bungisngis

I'm all alone now in blissful peace...watching the rain...strawberry's gone
(the cacti and sedums I moved down under this table as they're getting too much rain)

ginger tea and almond wafers with chocolate filling (these are actually parisienne  macarons that did not rise---and when they do not rise and do not grow feet, I call them almond wafers---that's looking at life like a glass of milk that's half full

tea, wafers and rain...hmmmm

my discontinued tea pieces

Watching the rain from  the front window

watching the rain through the French door

Here's what's going on in my garden now.
the flowers that have come back don't seem to be robust---I wonder if it has something to do with  warm weather coming too early. then some cold days...

blueberries are in bloom

bleeding heart (Decentera Spectabilis??)

bleeding heart

Pear tree

Lily of the valley

look at the purple at the tip!

Love, love, love them. I hope they could stay longer.

the flower inspector coming home from school

I did not take shots of my  dwarf apple and cherry trees that are leafing out. The new roses  I got are ever so slowly leafing out too. Montauk daisies, hydrangeas, peonies and hostas are doing very well. The baby fig trees are just coming oh, sooo painfully slowly. My favorite hibiscus so far hasn't taken a peek. I hope it comes back as it always did for the last eight years. Here is hoping to a beautiful and edible garden!

I must admit, I am quite the cheapo concerning cut flowers. I very rarely buy them. I wait until my own plants bloom before I get  to stick a bunch on my table. The daffodils above were picked in the Pocono home last weekend. 

What is this beauty's name?

more daffodils grace my flea market finds

chores by the sink are easier to do when I have these beauties to look at

It is a rare occasion that I get to hang out with my sisters for five days or so. What a grand time I had. Meeting in Indiana where Ellen lives, we drove in from NY (what a feat!), Jenny flew in from Colorado Springs, and Beth zipped in from Canada (two other sisters were absent). On our first day, after a big Filipino breakfast with much reminiscing and guffawing, we took a walk or so I thought. Upon hearing the word walk, my first instict was to grab a small knife just in case I find something to harvest? I did not know Ellen wanted to visit her neighbors with us in tow. So on our way to the neighbors' chalet by the pond on one side and the deep bluff on the other...the very first things I set my eyes on to was a morel mushroom. You can't guess how delighted I was. Then another one a few inches away. Like I said, it was not really a walk, but a visit. I would have wanted to explore the area more to look for more morels, but my companions walked, talked and chatted. Between looking for morels and missing the chatter and laughter and hanging out with them, I chose to hang. On the way back to Ellen's house, I pulled out some field garlic to saute my morels with.

my first morel

wild iris

the neighbors' fish pond

what are these?

morel and field garlic

As I drove home from work today, tired, a-weavin' and a-bobbin' through the Friday afternoon traffic I thought I'd get a short nap before I do some work in the wee garden. I have some basil and sugar snap peas to transplant. My potted trees have leaves in chartreuse and I'm not sure if it's because I kept them in the house for 3 days or it is its natural color of new leaves in spring.

 And so I found parking in front of the house, a rare happening especially on a Friday when all the youth it seems to me invade Long Beach to eat drink and be merry. As I walked to the gate, my eyes looking straight ahead, saw a most delightful thing that totally wiped my tiredness away. There on the porch was the box I've been waiting for, waiting for me. I became a kid let loose in a candy store.

There's a cherry tree in my house...in fact, there are two and a blueberry bush. I knew I will not be able to sleep well if I'd left them outside knowing  Mr. Frost is giving a visit. When Steve came home last night from giving a guitar lesson, he was surprised,  and wondered how (and if I carried the pots) I brought them in. I dragged them heeeeeeeavyyy pots. Zachary loves it. He likes the jungle feel it gave our little space. They're going to spend another night inside just to make sure. Two other things I brought in are dirty rectangular pots that nurse my future mesclun salad and Zach's favorite green garden snack---sugar snap peas. The rest, flowers seedlings, swiss chard, malabar spinach, baby stevia plants, etc. I left to fend for themselves out in the cold hoping they'd make it. The pots of stevia are not well.
Meantime, in the darkest corner of my wee kitchen, my sprouts are happily growing.

cherry tree by the doorway

Cherry tree number two and blueberry bush

mesclun and sugar snap peas

my mini sprout farm currently sprouting  blue french lentil, radish, broccoli , peas,  alfalfa  and fenugreek

They like to sleep and grow in the dark