Blame it on the Cat!

I was working on my computer one evening a little over a month ago - I was actually considering posting to the blog that night - dahlia life had been so eventful since my last post on April 17, and I wanted to share the joy. As usual, I had a glass of ice water on the table next to my laptop. My cat, Kitty, jumped up on the table and knocked my glass over, dumping icy water all over the keyboard! I tried everything I could to dry it out, toweling it off, using a hairdryer, and finally turning it upside down overnight.....to no avail! My keyboard was dead, never to rise again! It was all Kitty's fault - not mine, for having a glass of water next to my computer - and since that time, I have replace the keyboard with an external one from Staples, and it works fine. But it is not quite as easy as it before the cat broke it. Oh well, it's good to be back.

The past six weeks have been SOOOO busy! To tell you the truth, I do my best blogging in the morning, when my ancient brain is sharp and rested. However, now that it is what I lovingly call "dahlia season," the siren song of the garden usually wins out! I like morning gardening best, working in the crisp cool air of a new day, before the sun gets too high in the sky or my decrepit, banged-up knees give out on me. Gardening usually wins out over blogging......We were out of town for almost a month between April 18 and May 5, visiting my son Sam and his girlfriend Amber in Nevada.....I couldn't wait to get home to get my hands in the dirt, and when I got back, my sisters and I made plans to plant the Russell Street Garden. We planted 4 beds on the Sunday May 8, carefully tagging and marking every tuber. We had such a problem correctly identifying our plants last year, due to fading of tags, ink, and pictures in the sun and water. This year, we are determined to beat that problem once and for all. I just got a nice label maker that should help with this - but again, time will tell whether those labels will also bleach in the sun or dry up and fall off....I'll keep you posted on that!

A week or so later, I planted my home garden, and finally on May 18, I planted my row at the Tony DeRooy Memorial Garden on Emerson Street. The good news is that MOST of the tubers we have planted are now coming up......Some had to be dug up and be replaced, but not nearly as many as we had problems with in prior years. My next blog post will catch you up on the progress of the gardens to date. Right now, I have to get back out into the yard - it's a beautiful morning, and Kitty is staring up at me, looking like she's getting ready to leap up onto the table!