Counting raindrops and boxes on the calendar

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 therehe 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?

11 Replies to “Counting raindrops and boxes on the calendar”

  1. 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. (gone through another pair of sneakers)

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

  3. 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.

  4. 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 …

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

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