Do something for me, will you? Sometime this summer I will mention - I am sure of it - that I am planning to go buy some canning jars. When I do, yell at me. Forcibly restrain me if necessary. I do not, by any rational definition of the word "need", need canning jars. Lids, perhaps. Jars, no.

I just opened what I'm pretty sure is the third very large moving box filled with nothing but jars. These are in addition to the five or six never-opened boxes piled in the kitchen corner. Where could these have been hiding in the Charlottesville basement? I swear I had no idea that I owned so many. The pressure is on, certainly, to use them wisely and make their ownership worthwhile.

To that end, I contacted the manager of the community garden and asked if would be possible to lease the last remaining 19X20 plot, providing it was still available. No one had come forward with an interest so I now have two plots. This second one I will likely plant up with primarily tomatoes, peppers and herbs. So this may be the first year ever when it will be possible to preserve a year's tomato supply. Plus, the first plot I can now give over to some squashes, which will likely keep on the enclosed back porch quite nicely through the fall.

To add to my food-related joy, I have recently discovered what I am hoping are blueberry and blackberry brambles in the backyard. I've not much experience with small fruits so identification is underway, but if I'm right and we can keep at least some of the harvest from the birds it will be a beautiful thing. I don't need any jam, since I have plenty from last year, but a little syrup and some nectar wouldn't be a terrible thing to have on hand. And I've never dried fruits, although a little experiment might be fun.

So. Onward. Little lettuces are sprouting up, as are radishes. No germination yet on chard, zucchini or green beans. I planted back-ups of the last two but no sign of even them. I don't want to resort to starts, but I suppose I can't rule it out at this point. Why can't I grow stuff from seed? So enormously frustrating...

I was cranky today and invested a lot of time is just being so, time which took me away from other pressing concerns like making cookies for my cousins graduation party, sewing the dress and top for Entropy Girl (both of which have been cut for weeks), changing sheets, conducting research on Optical Character Recognition for a client, and eating anything other than tortilla chips and salsa. Perhaps industriousness will be bestowed upon me tomorrow.