This house we moved to is out in the sticks, but not actually. It’s, like, fake-rural. We live right off a relatively busy highway, but we have a little under half an acre and it’s a dead-end street with not too many houses. The bugs like it here. We have wasps building nests way up on the gable where we can’t reach them. Bastards. Last night a spider the size of a dinner plate ran under the dryer in the basement. Bastard. I told my husband there’s a reason I don’t do laundry… We also have plenty of flies, mosquitoes and I don’t even want to know what else right now. I’m kind of freaking myself out.

*cries a little*

Anyway, as I write this, I’m hanging out on the front porch with the wasps and a couple of spiders. We are so cozy. I can’t wait to hang out here on a warm, rainy day.

I plan to paint those chairs a glossy cobalt blue. Was going to do red, but then realized they’d clash with the porch. Wait! Don’t look at the porch. It’s all chipped and scuffed. For that matter, don’t look at the siding on the house, either.

Look! It’s an herb garden!

Yesterday, we tore out all the neglected and dead things that were not!growing in this little area and replaced them with some sort of fancy rosemary from Italy, some lavender plants from the sale rack, some thyme and some sage. And some flowering perennial thing.  Can’t you tell what a good gardener I am?

The neighbors are very interested in our gardeing efforts. Pretty much everyone has stopped by to check on our progress. One lady who has lived on this street for 37 years just came by to tell us how pristine this street used to be. But, uh, no pressure. Just, you know, hurry up and FIX IT. (Okay, not really, they are very nice and have offered the use of garden tools. So we’ll FIX IT ALREADY.)

Seed-saving update: Some well-meaning soul threw away my jalapeño seeds. I’m looking in Mr. Wolf’s direction (!hi honey!), but we had lots of people over on Labor Day for a BBQ and it could have been anyone who was helping us clean up. My fault for not labeling them. My fingers are no longer burning… THE BURNING!… so maybe I’ll try again.

What. They were hot this time and there were like a thousand of them. Or thirty.