The Seniors Do Friday

Friday, April 24th, 2009

7 am. Up a bit early. No Pooping Raccoon last night. Life is good. Usual breakfast...yada, yada and Benefiber.

It's SUCH a great day! We had a lot of thunderstorms last night, but today the sun is shining and it is WARM. We have our tee time for 10 am, and we are resting in the Great Room when the phone rings at 8:15. It's our Golf Club! We can't golf today because the course is too wet! R promptly makes another tee time for Saturday at 10:40, and we take five to dream up a Plan B for this morning. Weather happens.

P cleans up the house a bit while thinking. Then we both go down to the Studio to glaze some pots, before P heads up to the deck, and plants the cabbages and cilantro. Those babies are ready to be outside now. The tomato and basil babies need to be in the greenhouse a bit longer.
(Factoid: when to plant tomatoes outdoors. Old farmer mom used to sit on the ground. If her derriere stayed warm and dry, it was time...).

The decision comes to us like a bolt of lightening: it's time to go to Ganz's Greenhouse in nearby Marseilles! A quick call to our friend Kathie (we promised to call her if we were going there this week) and we're off. Almost. First we stop at the other place to check the asparagus bed. The first shoots are READY! P gleefully harvests just enough for the weekend, and we both look forward to an orgy of asparagus this Spring.

A few minutes later, we get to Ganz's Greenhouse, and Kathie is there to meet us. We are all three Morris Garden Club members, and this trip is like a Spring Rite of Passage. Ganz's has been in business since heaven knows when. It's a set of greenhouses on Route 6 where they have been spending all Winter planting and starting their own veggies and flowers! They are only open from April to June. And...if you don't get there early, the best goes fast! The three gardeners saunter through the many aisles, and we all come up with a plethora of plants for our gardens.

We have: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, big tomatoes, sweet peppers, and annuals. Kathie has overdosed on basil, tomatoes, and annuals. We all leave, happy.

Once home, we place our new plants in the garage until tomorrow. Many of them will go into the greenhouse until they can safely go outside. And right now...we have to go to work selling our pots at Starved Rock.

Off to Starved Rock State Park! We are participating in the IVAR fundraiser (Illinois Valley Animal Rescue), and we hope to sell some pottery as part of the Arts exhibit. 6 other artists, all fellow members of Ottawa Art League, have chosen to participate in the event, too. And there are booths of dog and cat specific all around the Starved Rock Room. It's a nice show, and the dinner is good. IVAR makes some money toward their new building, and we are breaking down the booth at 9 pm...right on schedule.

Home by 10. The totes are placed in the garage, and we head upstairs to the Great Room to have a glass of red wine, relax, and ... then to bed.

That was Friday!