Our seder was a big, interactive, participatory event, as predicted.  Jess joined us.  Avdi came through with progressive haggaddahs and roles for each participant, which tended to get rowdy and comedically improv at times!  The theme was solidarity with the victims of genocide in Gaza, and other human rights crimes, and the hope for justice and freedom for every marginalized community.  I provided a hearty matzo ball soup, and even better (also slightly unconventional) charoset.  Appropriate inebriation and hilarity were achieved.  All in all, a successful (and educational!) seder.  I slept over, and actually got some sleep.

Yesterday was a gorgeous, warm and windy, quintessential spring day.  Since we weren’t doing a second seder, my culinary role wasn’t required, so I got a lot done in the garden.  I planted the assorted cucumber seedlings and chamomile plants, then brought out some more seedlings to harden off: tomatoes, artichokes, basil, etc.  I prepped the areas surrounding the veg garden, and direct-sowed assorted corn, pole beans, sunflowers, and beneficial companionate annual flowers mixes: nasturtiums, marigolds, zinnias, and calendula.  Also black hollyhocks in front of the tool shed.

Naturally, as a gardener, my original plan and layout revises every five minutes!  Nature is the ultimate supervisor; I just determine where the most logical, viable locations would be, and customize it to the end users.  Then we just sit back and be patient and envision the beautiful results.  The goal is to keep it natural and managed at the same time, then let nature take over.

It’s one of those years when you burn the chametz, prep for erev Shabbat in the limbo period, then turn around and prep for erev Pesach!  It takes ingenuity, but we’ve got that.  Even my charoset is better than, shall we say, ever.

Obviously I’m too busy to write, so here are photos.  Look, a fern pangolin!

The last two days could be described as wild mood swings in weather (as well as other kinds).  One minute it’s warm and sunny, next it’s a manic thunderstorm, then back to a sparkling spring day.  Fortunately the roofers were able to finish without major disruptions.  I’m sure I amused them with my sketchy attempts at Español, since they didn’t speak much English.  Later, K was able to power wash a side of the house from mold green to white.  Lots of productivity, at least on the exterior.

Meanwhile, I’ve been doing pre-Passover cleaning and prepping.  Probably the Raging Sages are rolling in their musty graves over our unconventional version of chametz-purging and observance, but tradition must adjust to reality.  Our priority is to keep to the spirit, not the letter.  These particular kids need to experience that Judaism isn’t only about suffering and misery!  They’re going through enough of their own private turbulence as it is.

You have to be resourceful with preps when everything is so hectic and time-crunched.  Between us, Avdi and I managed to order most of the Pesach supplies and have them delivered.  The one seder will be creative and improvisational as always, having so many unpredictable factors to work around, but it will happen.  If anything, it will be even more relevant during these uncertain times, when large groups of innocent people are being persecuted and deported to essentially concentration camps for no reason.

Check out this hawk I was able to catch in mid-flight right overhead.  Also, one of E’s flower plantings.

I voted on the way to Avdi’s.  The roofers were there, installing new shingles.  I was glad to see they hadn’t been deported!

Today I planted more plants, brought out some more seedlings to harden off, and spaced the ones downstairs.  I helped Avdi with chores, and with dinner, which was Cajun Hoppin’ John over rice.

The main “chore” now is for everyone to finish off chametz before Pesach.

My grandson E must have acquired some green DNA from me, because he’s been out there whenever possible, rain or shine, creating a secret garden of his own.  It’s in the blood–or sap.  This is just the beginning of his “evil plan”–to introduce chickens!

I’m continuing to clear and clean up various beds for their new purposing: perennial veggies and fruits; veg bed annexes; and of course lots and lots of flowers.  Down in the lab, the cukes are taking over, demanding to be liberated!  Last night was hopefully the last freeze; now everyone can start hardening off outside.

The variegated trillium is starting to bloom!  Also comfrey.  Also tulips and iris!  And lots of mystery bulbs coming up.

On the way over today, I’ll vote in our local county election.  Ours is just a minor one, but every election is crucial now.

It’s been raining for days, with the usual backyard flooding.  All told, we got several inches of rain.  The drainage canal became a deep rushing river.  Not a lot could get done outside.  It was cold, but after tonight, I think frost danger will be behind us, and I can bring most of the seedlings out to harden off.

Shabbat happened, as always.  It’s that chametz-consuming time of year, so the menu featured lots of that.

Saturday I spent the night (not sleeping well) as usual, then the next day (yesterday) I helped Avdi with a big project, deep-cleaning and reorganizing the baking supply shelving unit, while he resituated the bulletin board to be more accessible.  E worked on his own garden slash possible chicken area.  I stayed for the family meeting, then had to get home and get some sleep.

So here I am in the middle of the night, not sleeping!  Maybe it’s just the insane state of the country that keeps me up thinking about holocausts, y’know, the usual stuff.

Rain doesn’t rein me in, as you can see from these wet woodlandish scenes!  This is my favorite habitat.  All the ephemeral flowers and shade natives are just bursting out and taking over more real estate, as it should be.  Ok, so some non-natives are invading, as they do, but I’ve given up micromanaging nature.  It’s going to have its way with or without me.  I take out the worst culprits as I find them, and take in the rest.

S brought home a sycamore sapling from school, and I planted it along the front of the “wetland woods” area, where it will get sun and water and have room to grow.  Light rain watered it in.  S approved it when he came home.

Down in the lab, I started a whole flat of six varieties of heirloom tomato seeds saved and sent by a friend.  We should have quite an assortment of tomatoes this year.  The spiral tendril belongs to an Armenian cucumber.  All the cuke plants are huge and trying to vine up already!  Soon I’ll harden them off (in between “tornadoes”!)

This is how I avoid hateful politics.  There is way too much insanity to rant about, for lowly me to even get started.  The experts (like Cory Booker) have that covered.  If gardening could kill demented criminals in power, I would garden them out of existence.  Unfortunately, I’m not very capable of or proficient at real activism and revolution, but I support those who can do it, or at least supportive of those who aren’t in a position to.  Like children, or critters, who didn’t ask for all this oppression, and don’t deserve it.

These confounded so-called tornado watches and warnings are really starting to annoy me.  I mean I’m glad they turn out to be false alarms (for us at least), but they’re nerve-racking.  Then of course they have to throw in the wailing sirens for good measure, just to make sure you’re sufficiently panicked.  I swear there’s some nerd somewhere going “Ooh Ooh can I press the red alert button now, can I?!”  The price you pay for living in the less expensive midwest.

In between thunder, lightening, and rain, I did manage to get gardening done.  At one point, our neighbor and I were weeding and talking gardens through the fence, and she let me dig up some yarrow to transplant, which was nice.  We often swap plants. We worked until the last minute before it started looking scary out.  Then it was just a t-storm which dwindled into a nice evening.

A’s backyard is a real bird haven.  As fast as I dig and hoe, the robins come behind me for food.  The backyard robin mom knows me and lets me come right up to her nest where she seems to be sitting on eggs.  (There’s a newly renovated nest on top of the front door light, but I haven’t seen that mom yet.)  A pair of the many mourning doves have taken up residence on top of E’s [future?] chicken coop, where they bask in the sun and let me get pretty close if I’m careful.

Even the fish recognize me now and come out when I call them (and feed them a little).  It only took E about a day or two to discover OtoCat the new catfish; E is very alert.  We had a laugh over that.

The next wave of spring natives are starting to bud out, the wild ginger, spring beauty, mayapple, solomon’s seal, celandine poppy, jacob’s ladder, jewelweed (taking over the whole yard now), and of course the va bluebells, violets, and ferns.  There are many more, yet to be IDed by me.  Every individual plant is an exciting discovery to me, and all of them are doing exceptionally well this year.

This evening’s drinks were my version of a “Hurricane”, to go with Avdi’s delicious Cajun smoked turkey sandwiches.

I know I’m not alone in thinking, who needs April Fools, when every day is like waking up to the biggest fools joke in history, only it’s reality.  Hard act to follow.

Speaking of waking up, I normally sleep through 6AM, but here I am up and writing.  Like, it’s April, fool, time to wake up with the birds and get ready to garden.

We’re supposed to get another one of those big storms tomorrow; maybe it will be another April fools joke.  There’s no telling around here.

Yesterday I introduced OtoCat to E’s aquarium, but didn’t tell him.  I’m waiting to see how long it will take him to notice the new little catfish.

I did lots of gardeny stuff yesterday.  I planted some hardened-off veg and herb plants, and brought some more outside.  I’m excited to see last year’s asparagus coming back.  Also all the ferns are unfurling!

I continued to hoe around the outside of the veg garden.  In a couple of weeks (after frost-free date) I’ll be able to start direct-sowing the rest of the flower and veg seeds, and harden off more seedlings.  And start some more indoors.  A never-ending cycle.

I arrived at A’s on Sat. while he was driving to retrieve Y from their week with their Mom.  Then he immediately turned around and took E to the New Jewish Theatre’s production of Cabaret.  Avdi found it particularly moving and relevant right now.  Too relevant.

Meanwhile there was plenty of work for me to do inside and out.  This supposedly huge storm (high winds, t-storms, large hail, possible tornadoes) was coming through on Sunday, so we were battening down, as well.  I spent the night, but didn’t sleep much.

Yesterday, while waiting for the “storm”, Y and I hung out and did gardeny things, and replaced the old pool cover with the new one (with help from A).  On the radar maps, there were all the colorful blobs and warnings for our area, continually changing times and routes, while in reality, it was like someone just kept turning the sun on and off, with sprinkles.

At one point, it got all dark and ominous, with the wind whipping up, and we thought this is it, head downstairs, only to have it thunder in the distance and–some rain.  A big false alarm.  Unalarming.  Anticlimactic.

Somewhere out there, the radar insisted, was a major storm heading through STL and east.  Then the sun came out.  Not that I’m complaining!  But this weather here is making me crazy.

Still, I had a nice time over there, weathering the storm that wasn’t, enjoying the warm weather.  Then I strolled home, watched the climax of “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”, and went to bed early.  And here I am, not surprisingly wide awake in the middle of the night.