Hi, we’re still here.

Last weekend, we stopped at some friends’ house to pick up a bag of Meyer lemons from their tree. One of them mentioned that we hadn’t posted any updates recently. Mike and I looked at each other and shrugged. Mike said, “we’re just here.”

That’s it, really. We’re just here, alternating between doing our jobs and puttering around outside. The line between home life and work life has blurred, which has been a welcome change of pace after years of spending so much time driving around.

While I do miss a lot of things about being in an office with colleagues, I have never before had the time to go outside and observe the natural world on a daily basis. Now, I know that when California poppies are in bloom, bumblebees bumble from flower to flower. I noticed that newly-sprouted grape leaves have a shimmery sheen to them. I met our resident mole, which skims along the surface of the ground, almost as it is swimming through the dirt.

I have seen a multitude of other pollinators co-existing with us, grateful for the plants we grow with an eye towards sustaining them.

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We grew garlic…

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…and snow peas.

The real treat of the spring were these beautiful sweet peas. We weren’t sure whether we had the right conditions for them, so the fact that they thrived was a wonderful surprise.

Now, our tomatoes are planted and I’m eagerly spying baby fruits. Though summer is officially here, we probably have about six more weeks to wait for edible tomatoes. It’s the most impatient time of the year!