Five days of no work

My virus-induced vacationette is making me stir-crazy. I think I actually first came down with this cold on Mem Day or even the day before, but it didn't really begin flowering until Friday. I stayed home, cancelled cocktail night the next day, and looked forward to being better by Monday. But Sunday night I felt worse than ever--not only tired and achy but dizzy as well--and slept so badly I wouldn't've been able to make it through the day even if I'd been well. Last night was better, but this morning I once again awoke worn-out and without a shred of motivation.

But it's a beautiful day and I was determined to get out of the house. Ever since monshu and I decided to edge the garden in nasturtium, I've been ruing not getting the seed in the ground before the recent rains. We talked about Gethsemane on Saturday, but he wasn't up to it any more than I was. I mooted going yesterday, but couldn't even drag myself into the shower, so today I was determined.

I had good luck catching the bus, which left me plenty of time for lunch at M Henry. Their "grown-up grilled cheese" is for very petite grown-ups indeed and the "Asian slaw" is unseasoned shredded red cabbage with mirin. I asked for a slice of pie "a la mode" and got it cold with whipped cream. Yeah, don't see what has people lining up to get into that place on weekends. I found myself really regretting now going a little farther south to have mantı at Turkish Bakery.

But the garden store picked me up, even if I spent a chunk of time waiting in vain to have questions answered. (Are groundcherries really that obscure? One employee thought it was related to blackberries; another thought it was an ornamental.) I left with $12 in seeds and waited interminably for a bus back, annoyed that I wasn't in any shape to walk instead. At Clark/Devon I ducked in for some potting soil and the seed display made me realise I'd forgotten to look for black-eyed susans. Ta-da! They had less than a dozen flower varieties left, but that was one of them.

So back at home I scraped up the sunniest corner of the parkway and tossed in some seeds. The buckwheat finally did come in--it's even blooming now--but not nearly thickly enough to strangle weeds as promised. So my clever solution was to rip up everything that wasn't buckwheat and put new seed in the resulting holes. Here's hoping. In the backyard, I planted a couple pots with catnip and several more with a variety of basils which I'll start inside.

Ironically, the one thing I couldn't plant today was the nasturtium. As with parsley, the seeds need to soak overnight first. I prepared the ground and am clinging to some chimaerical notion that I'll actually go out there tomorrow morning and pop them in. (Rain is predicted for tomorrow afternoon.) Hey, that might actually be something to get me out of bed.