When we got home we discovered that the garden had gone rioting while we were away, so HRH took it in hand. The first thing we did before we even got into the house was pull out one of the carrots with the boy, who had been asking about them for a month, and lo and behold, it was carrot-sized, and very sweet! He’s had one a day since we got home.

We should have harvested all the peas before we left; they’re a bit sour now, but cooking them in sugar water will help that, Ceri tells me. We have a staggering number of green tomatoes, and three or four are even ripening and will be ready in a day or so! Yes! Real tomatoes this year! If they all ripen I will be able to make staggering amounts of preserved tomatoes. It’s probably mostly due to HRH thinning out the tomato plant foliage before we left to allow sunlight through to the fruit. And when he weeded everything out and pulled out the last of the lettuce, HRH found that a cucumber seed had actually taken and had stealthily been growing under the lettuce and potato greens. There are a couple of flowers on it, so we’ll see what happens there.

It’s the eleventh and so time for the boy’s monthly post, but that can wait as it took me three days to do the post-trip roundup.

I pulled the cello out last night once the boy was in bed and HRH was downstairs. Just before I left for NS I’d done a bunch of water-related work: washing several loads of dishes, bathing the boy, scrubbing the bathroom, washing my hair, that sort of thing. Just a lot of it in a very short period of time. And my callouses started lifting right off! While I was gone the last bits flaked off entirely, so I sat down with very smooth fingers last night. Well, the callouses are starting already, which is good. I played for about an hour, reviewing things, trying a new piece in the Positions book by Mooney, then messed around with all the harmonic positions on the C string. My teacher contacted a few of us yesterday and asked if anyone wanted a lesson next week, as she’d be in town and free, so I waved my hand madly. I know I’m doing things wrong, I just can’t figure out what.

HRH tells me the hallway and the fourth wall of the living room will be painted this week! We’re off to secure paint chips today.