Thank you...

to imhilien and everyone else who wished me good things on my birthday. I never expect anyone to remember, so it's a delightful surprise when people do.

I did throw myself a big shebang -- or rather, asked my lovely spouse to organize it for me -- when I turned 60. The icon is from my "croning ceremony." Which sounds on the surface like an odd thing for a nice Jewish/Quaker lady to do, but was absolutely perfect, both in terms of personal milestone, community celebration, and spiritual clarity. I suspect the next big one will be 70, and we'll have another grand party then. 65, and signing up for Medicare, just sounds like hassle.

My present to myself, long overdue, was to finally get effective treatment for my Restless Leg Syndrome. I've had it, on and off, since my 20s, when no one had heard of it and my doc had to look it up in a book; now it's much better known, and its effects on quality sleep are appreciated. Over time, it steadily got worse in frequency of episodes, intensity and duration. It seemed to be getting better after menopause, better in the sense that "all it took" was 10 minutes wandering around the kitchen, putting away dishes (at 2 am). But I was doing that every single night, and recently it wasn't 10 minutes, it was 2 hours.

Enter ropinirole (generic Requip); I'm on the minimum starting dose, and have not had a single intimation of a twitch in 3 weeks. Some trouble falling asleep, and early waking, which could be due to stress, but overall feeling 'energized.' Exceptionally vivid dreams, and greatly increased morning energy. As a young adult, I used to bound out of bed, full of vim and Plans For The Day. Now I'm getting a little bit of that back -- where did it go?

Spring!

Garden update: with the recent heat and sun, we have an explosion of growth:

The asparagus bed is odd this year, lots of very-new ferns, most likely from last year's seed. They have not confined themselves to the designated plot, but are threatening to invade elsewhere. Let them, I say. Let them enjoy a year or two unfettered and grow strong and juicy. Little do they know their fate. The established plants are sprouting erratically, but we've gotten 3 or 4 batches so far, plus enough to freeze one large batch. Some nice thick stalks are just pushing up, so we'll have more. Fresh asparagus, eaten within 24 hours of harvest, is sweet. We can eat a lot of it.

Dave planted a row of fennel where the pole beans were last year (it's good to rotate so the bugs don't remember where what was) and the artichokes have a couple of buds. Dave says to wait another year to harvest the rhubarb, and I suspect he's right. We did have one stem that broke (maybe a squirrel landed on it?) and I cooked it up, extending it with plums I canned last year from an elderly neighbor's tree. Dave pruned their fruit trees this spring, so we will most likely get more from them this summer.

Arugula has grown wild throughout the garden, and we harvested a bunch (alas, mostly tough stems) that was shading the chard. The chard, I should mention, that never dies. I think it's 2 years old, and still going. Looking very happy right now, but it will not survive too much more heat. It will get wilted and brown, but revive with rain and cooler weather.

The pear trees, glorying in their new! improved! access to sun, were covered with blossoms, and we'll get a bumper crop, plus a smallish harvest of apples. We have a new baby peach-in-a-pot that flowered, but we won't let the fruit develop, as it needs all its energy to get solidly established.

We're still getting grapefruit, but not for too much longer. You have to leave the fruit on the tree for 2 years for proper ripeness, and most of what's left won't be ready until next winter.

In our winter garden, the bok choy has gone to seed, the dragon kale and collards should be ready to harvest when I get back from the Nebulas, and -- most exciting -- our brussels sprouts plants (is that all plural?) have produced the cutest little buds. We're hoping it cools off so they get a chance to mature. Snow peas have put forth flowers, and sugar snaps will follow shortly.

We have roses -- an heirloom climbing variety that blooms several times during the year. Also glorious purple iris -- just a few now, but many buds. One calla lily, huge and luscious, like a dream of Georgia O'Keeffe. An explosion of wistaria along the back fence -- you can get drunk on the fragrance. It's also lilac time, although ours isn't happy where it is, and gives grudgingly. Dave transplanted one to a sunnier place and we'll see how it does next spring.