Is it summer yet?

I still haven't managed to get myself to sit in front of the computer long enough to write a proper posting, but as further proof that I am (still) not dead, here are some garden pictures.



Valerie gave me some lovely seedlings for my birthday, so in addition to the usual cucumbers, arugula, and tomatoes, I've got Alpine strawberries* (AKA fraise des bois in Switzerland), Carmen peppers, and even more tomatoes!

* The last time I had some of these, they expired after an especially long heat wave. (Strawberries to Elinoire: "What part of "Alpine" do you not understand? We don't DO 95+ degrees."**) I am delighted to have them again and I'm keeping my fingers crossed in hopes the weather cooperates this summer.

** Or 35+ degrees Celsius, which is how the strawberries talk about temperature when they're visiting relatives back home in the Alps.



And, bien sur, the garden and I are not the only ones who remain in the land of the living. Proof: a small brown cat lurks behind the cucumbers.

Entry the thirty-sixth: Fifteen things

I'm in the middle of one of those self-involved but (hopefully) amusing "Hundred things about me" lists, but I'm just going to post the facts in groups of fifteen. I'm hoping this will mollify me when I can't post pictures of presents I'm working on. Plus, it draws this out. That's good, right? Yeah, I don't know either.

1. I wish I could see some of my very best friends more often. I hate that I live so far away from them.
2. I love gingerbread.
3. And really good strawberries.
4. I get annoyed about trivial things way too easily.
5. Like people who talk during movies. I am so easily annoyed that I don’t go to the movies very often anymore.
6. One of my earliest memories is of being underwater and seeing the surface above but not being able to get to it until my dad pulled me out.
7. That was in Loch Ness but, as far as I know, no monsters were involved.
8. I am always surprised when lake water is fresh, not salty.
9. I am impatient.
10. I am a Taurus but I don’t believe in astrology.
11. I love John Waters’ essays but his movies are usually too rude for me.
12. I get tense when people on TV or in movies are in embarrassing situations.
13. I don’t mind traveling on my own.
14. Sometimes I prefer it.
15. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

Plus, for no reason, here is a picture of my husband taking a picture of our cats.