new life
Our yard is abuzz with activity,
and each day new life is emerging.
And lots more flowers blooming.
The rose we planted in early Spring has blossomed.
And a whole lot of new maracuja blossoms, too!
And our second pomegranate tree has bloomed!
The first sunflower has opened!
The tomatoes and tomatillos are flowering,
as is one of the watermelons.
We have one baby watermelon!
We also have bunches of “green-berries”:
loads of green blueberries on about half of the blueberry bushes
and a scattering of green raspberries on the two golden raspberries
and a few more on a couple of the red raspberry bushes.
And as promised, a ton of blossoms on the blue ballet winter squash vines,
though most are males, so they’re great for eating now,
(stuff each blossom with a spoon of fresh cheese, close & dip in beaten egg,
then roll in seasoned breadcrumbs & panfry in olive oil. Yum!)
but so far only one female, indicated by a mini-squash behind the blossom,
which has been growing larger, and is now the size of a golf ball.
So far all the three sisters plantings show great promise:
over two dozen strawberry popcorn seedlings have emerged,
and all but one of the Hokkaido squash and some of the beans.
Also, nine Käferbohnen have sprouted, and are now potted up.
And nine chickpeas have emerged, and are growing quickly and will soon by ready to transplant.
In other news, our solicitors finally heard back from the immigration office
of our next needed steps. We will be meeting again soon to learn of our fate.
We were a bit nervous, and went in yesterday to find out if it was good news or not:
our process has gotten easier, as apparently the laws have changed in our favor.
(Yet I’m still much happier in my isolated dreamworld where humans are just humans,
judged by our deeds and not our countries-of-origin, as all passports were not created equal.
And in my dreamworld we are all allowed to just live where we want to live,
no questions asked. Freedom, I guess.)
But all this bureaucratic paperwork seems like a distraction,
and instead we’ve been working to make this our dreamland anyway.
Hoping that whoever decides our fate can see our dedication,
that our hearts are here, setting up a home, and let us continue.
A positive decision on our fate would be such a relief.
And let us get back to the things that matter:
continuing to revamp our water system,
continuing to plant and transplant our garden,
continuing to repaint our house,
continuing to renovate our bathroom,
and constructing our outdoor kitchen area.
And work on our newest unfinished project: an outdoor shower.
Mohamed found wooden panels from an old quinta farmhouse,
so I’ve been varnishing enough pieces from a wardrobe and dining room set
to fasten together to construct the walls and a hinged door for a shower stall.
I still need to finish varnishing some driftwood planks for the floor,
so that our feet won’t get muddy while showering.
I recently had a dream about the fruit trees that we’ve planted on the hillside…
in the dream, we were working on setting up an irrigation system for them,
but kept being distracted by the need to work on other projects,
so had to keep doing the same things over and over,
like laying out hoses and such. (Our reality it isn’t much different,
as we are a few connectors short of having enough hoses to water the whole yard.)
So the next morning, I did some more research on growing citrus trees.
And then Mohamed and I walked around a bit on the hillside,
assessing what to do next, now that he has dug in a half barrel
so that we have a little pond down by the hazelnut tree
(partly as a reserve to conveniently water the nearby trees,
but mostly to positively affect the microclimate:
as more humidity keeps it from feeling desert-y,
for the hazelnut as well as the nearby peaches and apricots.)
So while walking we were talking about the trees and their neighbors,
especially that some trees grow better with similar trees nearby,
creating whole neighborhoods to spread the microclimate effect.
So we’ve mapped out the whole hillside, labeling all our trees,
in an effort to create routes for the different watering systems,
and ideal identifying spaces where other trees can be planted.
Though since we’re approaching summer,
only citrus trees can be transplanted now. Speaking of citrus,
I’ve been sprouting lemon seeds from organic lemons we’d purchased.
So far one lemon has emerged, with an inch long shoot and three leaflets.
marisa wrote on Jun 2:
Thanks Lee for your kind words!
I've found, to sprout just about anything,
start with organic seeds,
so in this case, organic lemons
(but this works for beans, squash, peppers, etc.)
open the fruit to release the seeds when ripe,
on a Fruit day, soak overnight, at least twelve hours,
then put in a small flowerpot in a seed-starting soil,
with a sprinkling of sand in the bottom so the roots won't stick.
Water regularly and leave in a warm & sunny place.
Make sure to plant the seed before the end of the Fruit time.
For Fruit trees, it can take months...
so don't give up on them too soon.
Good luck!
Lee wrote on May 30:
Good luck with your immigration, you certainly have shown dedication to creating a beautiful space, I hope that counts!
How have you been sprouting your lemon seeds? I've tried a couple times but can't seem to get them to come up!