Taste The Jam

Day 148: Once the flu-like side effects of the Moderna vaccine had worn off, I began to feel invigorated, just as I had done after the first dose. Perhaps "invigorated" isn't the right word; more like I'd eaten an entire eight-ounce bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans. Yesterday, I hit the yard, and I hit it hard. I cleared out the Barren Wasteland, preparatory to replanting it with cosmos, marigolds and alyssum and then, after a fifteen minute sit-down, I launched into weeding both the front and side flower beds (a job for which I usually allow 3-4 days). The "perky" phase is still full-blown today. I transplanted half a dozen volunteer yews, added soil amendments and fresh soil to the blueberry, gooseberry, currant and tomato containers, fussed and fiddled with a number of other small projects. While on my knees in the Berry Pen, I noticed that the gooseberries were beginning to put on their first leaves; I think I have one jar of jam left from last year's crop. Spring can't get here fast enough for me! I have a pair (male and female) Hardy Kiwi Anna vines on order, in the hopes that the male will also fertilized the purportedly-but-not "self-fertile" Issais which frame the Berry Pen gate, as well as a few packets of flower seeds. But maybe I'm a little premature. Yesterday, I was pelted with small hail while I was working. Today, it was snowing. Still, it felt good to get down-and-dirty in the garden.