Sylvia's Journal

I did not get the potatoes in but noticed I must have overlooked a few last fall when I spent a couple of hours on my hands and knees rooting through the dirt to collect our last harvest. Small potato plants are poking through the garden debris in various places. I did get the many raspberry stalks out that threatened to take over the garden and its immediate vicinity. It seemed wasteful to pull them all up but I have to assert my control.

After Quaker meeting we went to one garden center in Ipswich to pick up our seed potatoes and the geraniums for the Magnuson graves and then to another in Gloucester to get the plants for our window boxes and some vegetables that can be put out already. Tomatoes are not available until after the next something-or-rather-moon. Age old farmers’ wisdom tells us that we have to wait for this moon before we can plant tomatoes. It is hard to believe that frost is still possible, as we are in middle of May, but then again, the old farmers knew best and it has been known to freeze even this late.

Putting the flowers at the Magnuson graves is an annual event that has to take place before Memorial Day of course. We did not get that task finished yesterday as the weather turned cold and rainy in the late afternoon.

We bought the traditional coral and white geraniums that Penny liked so much. We had planted tulips and crocusses last fall but then we forgot to enjoy them this spring. On our way to the airport to Holland, now three weeks ago, I remembered the bulbs and we swung by the cemetery to admire them only to find them post-bloom with shriveled up petals on the ground. We missed it!

For the summer plantings we have experimented with something other than geraniums but none do well in the generally poor soil; or Penny protested; so we are back to the coral and white geraniums. We plant them for the whole family, which includes grammy and grampie Magnuson, Ester, Paul and Phil. When the plants are in we have a little ceremony which includes vodka. We toast to them, thank them and pour some vodka on the gravestones. Most of them like(d) vodka. I don’t like it all that much. I just wet my lips.

Joe arrived last night from California. He is here to educate himself at MIT on systems thinking. He will get to play the beer game this week. We prepped him by serving Sita and Axel’s home made beer. It is of a rich dark color and we all agreed that it tastes better than store bought. It is also more affordable.

Joe was last here as the Lobster Cove Calamity Management coordinator in late july 2007. He left early August after having installed the first ramp to allow me easier entry and exit through the front door. Upon leaving he passed the baton to Sita which she held firmly until we were all better. Joe’s last image of us was of me in in a wheelchair and Axel in a hospital bed. We have come a very long way. We already knew this but Joe confirmed it.