Counting raindrops and boxes on the calendar

By admin | Published: April 28, 2008
Happy is the gardener who gets her plants in the ground and her tools put away before the rain starts. I couldn’t help myself. I jumped the gun this weekend. The broccoli I planted will be fine when the temperatures drop below freezing later this week. It won’t bother the pansies either, though the hollyhocks are already trembling. The lettuce and peas I sowed are hardy enough to push through snow. But I fear for the tomatoes. I put them out several weeks too early in a fit of blind optimism and while hallucinating about fresh tomato, basil, and mozzarella sandwiches. Maybe I could build them little bonfires or quick knit them all a blanket. Stay tuned…. Besides gardening (in a cloud of punkies so thick I had to work with a shawl wrapped around my head), the other fun thing this weekend was our nine-mile run around Cazenovia Lake with our Team in Training teammates. I’ve reached my fund raising goal and my Beloved Husband is 80% of the way there — he only needs another $485. Our bribery offer of free books and other goodies still stands if you donate (scroll down the linked post for the details.) Several important dates are sprinting towards us: 48 days until the Lake Placid Half-Marathon 60 days until ALA 146 days until the Philadelphia Distance Run 176 days until the release of CHAINS and my book tour (I got a preview of the tour plans last week, but I can’t talk about it until the details are finalized.) Looking backwards now: 2008 Resolution Tracker Week 16 – Miles Run: 14.5, YTD: 329.25 (gone through another pair of sneakers!) Week 16 – Days Written: 7, YTD: 118 This is Day 119 of 2008. We’re just about one-third of the way through the year. Does that seems possible?
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11 Comments

  1. m_stiefvater
    Posted April 28, 2008 at 2:20 pm | Permalink

    This sounds like my sister! She went wild planting things last week — of course, in Virginia, it’s less of a gamble — and when you mentioned basil, mozzarella, and tomato sandwiches, it made me want to get out there and help her plant some more.

  2. janni
    Posted April 28, 2008 at 2:44 pm | Permalink

    (gone through another pair of sneakers)

    I had no idea how quickly those things wear out before I started running …

    • admin
      Posted April 28, 2008 at 2:51 pm | Permalink

      I know, right? I have a spot on my knee that always gets painful just as I approach the magic mileage number when the sneakers expire. It is irritating and expensive to have to keep replacing them, but my husband reminds me it’s cheaper than surgery.

      • janni
        Posted April 28, 2008 at 2:57 pm | Permalink

        Shins for me. I spent miles and miles telling myself surely not yet, as if shin pain was somehow worth putting off the expense a couple extra weeks.

        I remind myself it’s still cheaper than any number of other ways of keeping moving …

  3. wordsrmylife
    Posted April 28, 2008 at 4:27 pm | Permalink

    Tomato help

    Did you ever try “Walls o’ Water” for your tomatoes? They’re a ring of plastic sleeves you fill with water and put around your tomatoes and peppers. The water acts as an insulator. I used to use them and they worked. Now I am so far behind in my garden most years that the tomatoes go in on Memorial Day, no matter what.

    Kathy Q.

    • pameladean
      Posted April 28, 2008 at 5:36 pm | Permalink

      Re: Tomato help

      Wall-o-Waters are even cooler than that. Water releases heat as it freezes, so if the temperature REALLY drops, the colder the water gets, the warmer your little tomatoes are.

      P.

      • wordsrmylife
        Posted April 29, 2008 at 2:07 am | Permalink

        Re: Tomato help

        Right you are. Although I never put the W-o-W out early enough to see them actually freeze. They certainly are handy for those of us who live in what my Mom calls the Intemperate Zone.

        • pameladean
          Posted April 29, 2008 at 2:45 am | Permalink

          Re: Tomato help

          Hee. That’s a great name for it.

          I live in Minnesota, and we can have frost into May. Sensible people don’t plant tomatoes until Memorial Day, and then there are the rest of us.

          P.

          • admin
            Posted April 29, 2008 at 12:31 pm | Permalink

            Re: Tomato help

            I have rarely been accused of being sensible.

  4. Anonymous
    Posted April 28, 2008 at 6:35 pm | Permalink

    Too funny that you should mention punkies, I was trying to explain those horrible little buggers to a non native Central New Yorker the other day and they looked at me like I was nuts. I have always called them punkies too! I guess that goes along with conies, spiedies and salt potatoes.

    • wordsrmylife
      Posted April 29, 2008 at 2:08 am | Permalink

      Yeah, I had to look them up. Round these here parts (northern New England) we call ‘em no-see-’ems. Lucky for us, they aren’t out yet. Soon enough.