Little darlings
These are my seedlings. There are cosmos (2 kinds), zinnias (2 kinds), cucumbers (picklers), nasturtiums (2 kinds), asters (3 kinds), tomatoes (for Ken) and maybe something else I'm forgetting. There are only 3 cleome plants; for some reason those seeds did not germinate. I planted old morning glory seeds and only a few of them germinated. Since then I found seeds from 2003 for lavender morning glories which are soaking in preparation of planting. The cosmos are big and bushy, everyone else is sort of leggy, which is why they're all outside during the day. I can't leave them out overnight because it gets too cold and they're still very tender little things. I hope they'll be ok today, it was very chilly (33 in the shade) when I moved them this morning.

Things to notice about the picture: that's Tess' tail on the left, sticking up next to the flats. She of course had to walk under the sawhorses while I was putting the flats on top of them. Notice the daffodils lying on the ground, heavy with frost. They don't really recover from this, they just sort of lie there all day in the sunshine. Note that each of the 4 flats holds 72 plugs and each plug that has plants in it has more than one plant (I can't stand to thin my seedlings: killing innocent plants that aren't weeds or undesirables is just not in me). Let's not count how many that means I have to plant, potentially. But just think of the flowers, tomatoes and cukes! I always have just grandiose garden plans, but I like that about myself, it means I have faith in the future.

I had a good weekend, though not terribly productive. When the black flies are out it limits my outdoor activities. I planted 10 plants in the early morning on Sat.: things I ordered, dianthus and sedum. The sedum will bloom in the fall and is something I've been eyeballing for a long time. The dianthus is a relative of the carnation and is something I used to have a huge patch of but it got crowded out and just died off, as I read Sat. it is want to do. I still have 10 lily bulbs to plant and found out today that my creeping phlox is on its way (creeping here from the supplier). I will stop at my favorite nursery this week and get a mega-supply of pansies for my big white bowl and doubtless will buy some annuals as well.

Friday night I cleaned the fish tank. I won't tell you what the death toll was, but I will tell you it's algae free and was filthy. Let's just say that now I can get that pair of guppies I've wanted for a long time.

Sat. evening I surfed my way to the Country Music channel, which sometimes has great stuff, and sure enough, there was Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions, rehearsals for his latest album, which is Pete Seeger's music. It was all acoustic, 3 horns, a piano, guitars, a bass, 2 fiddles, Peter Seeger's son, Bruce and of course Patti. It was wonderful. The music was fine and songs from my youth--John Henry, Shenandoah and other folk songs, and Bruce was at his finest. He's pretty full of himself, but wouldn't you be if you were Bruce Springsteen? CMT was going to broadcast a Van Morrison concert at 10 but I fell asleep and missed it. It'll be on again.

My mother's segment on Antiques Roadshow is coming up. The first installment of the Providence filmings is on tonight on PBS. Anyone out there who's interested should watch. She thinks she might be on tonight, I guess, but there are 3 segments of the Providence filmings. She's the one with a tiger stripe highboy that's been in her family for several generations. It was made in eastern Conn. in the 1700's. I don't know what she's wearing. It'll be on tonight and will be repeated at least once later in the week, then segment 2 will be on next Mon. and seg. 3 the following Mon. We're pretty excited, but of course we're not even sure she'll be on, they might have cut her.

Yesterday I was able to spend some time in the sun doing crossword puzzles, one of my favorite activities, because it was too cold in the morning for the bugs. It was 29 when I walked down to Holts, and only got up to the 50's by lunch time. The sun was warm, though, and I had a really nice morning in the sun. Dinner was quiet, just Bill and Ken. I left a little early, since I kept dozing off while Ken and I were reading the paper. Bill had gone to check on his camp and there was one point when both Ken and I were sleeping, me on the couch and him in his chair. I thought that was pretty funny.

Today I have to attack a "small collection" of French books from Chazy. YUCKA PUCKA! Foreign language books are sure not a favorite part of my job. Once Lake Placid sent me some Chinese stuff--as if! We don't have the characters on our keyboards, you fools, and even if we did: what the hell is the book about? These books are children's books with lots of pictures. I see one of them has Jesus in the title. That should help, no?