Loose Strife

There will be a brief pause in the daily Laura posts. It takes me several hours every 3 or 4 weeks to set it up. I’m just swamped right now and need to dig up a new archive of Laura stuff somewhere. Be back in a while, but here’s what we’re currently up to:
Here in Ashfield our spring has finally sprung in full force. Kids are just finishing up spring break (all week home with Daddy — translate: Daddy gets no work done). Naomi turns 5 on Monday. She plans to have a Wizard of Oz party and wants me to prepare specific character costumes for each of the guests. Yeah right. She’s made fashion drawings of the outfits for each character. Naomi has become an avid reader. (She had been studying a Toys-R-Us circular for several weeks, but then came to me yesterday to sadly report that she just noticed it was a “two-day blowout sale on April 2 and 3 only.”) Lily learned to ride a bike last spring, but then took a year off for fear of falling. Now she’s finally back on two wheels with enthusiasm. She has spent much of her spring break riding up and down the driveway.
It seems like time is suddenly crushing down on me with spring’s arrival. School finishes in only about 6 weeks. Natalie and Joe will be arriving at the end of May. I’m still struggling to scrounge a few hours here and there to work on software development and need to complete a major milestone by the end of June. I’ve become very involved in a local grassroots effort to bring high speed internet to western Massachusetts (many of us still use dial-up!), which has got me very engaged in local town meetings among almost 50 towns in the region. I also spend a fair amount of time helping to manage the Ashfield preschool.
On the farming side, I’ve got about 1500 flower starts going so far and will probably double that. The field is starting to get worked over again. Cool-loving larkspur is already in the ground as are dahlias and bachelor buttons. Raspberries are getting cleaned up. Grapes have been pruned. But there’s always more to do. A few hundred bare root raspberries will be arriving soon for a new planting and on it goes.
With two new dogs that hanker to dig and collect piles of junk to chew on, my plans for a well tended home garden have fallen by the wayside already. Biscuit seems to find my peony beds and strawberries to be the most comfortable spots for lounging in the sun.
Natalie and Joe plan to take the kids to Virginia for several weeks after school is up in the summer. The girls and I have never been apart for long so we are all anxious, but mostly excited. (What will I do with my time?! I expect to eat peanut butter on paper plates and never change clothes.)
My parents made the huge decision to sell their house and move to an apartment in a retirement community. They’ll probably be moving in early July. Almost 50 years in the same house and now downsizing is going to be a tremendous change and a lot of work. But I’m really happy for them and think they’re making a smart move.
My ties to the university have all but dried up as my last student successfully defended his PhD dissertation recently and took a job in Silicon Valley. (Way to go, Manju!) Luckily, (very luckily) I don’t miss academia.
That’s about all I can think of for now. The girls are fast asleep. I’ve got a lone peeper outside that’s bravely singing away. Kira, our newest dog, is outside listening for intruders and occasionally barking at the shadows.