The garden in March

After a flurry of activity, slowing down to see progress

Mar 15, 2024

Wow. Hi! If I needed any more signs from the universe that leaving my job was the right call, then I would surely be asking too much. Some incredible things have happened in the span of these past two very short weeks. What follows is a sludgy brain dump after everything, so feel free to scan the pics and headlines then get along with your day 😂

Hallelujah, the permits have been approved

Anyone who’s been with us for the long haul knows how important this is, how long we’ve been waiting, and how much we have suffered trying to meet our city’s demands. Thankfully, both our pool project and mom’s addition have now been given the green light. We’re so excited to go, as disconcerting as it is to anticipate our savings quickly disappearing. Here are the plans of what we’re building, more or less. Maybe by the end of the year, it will all be done???

A 3d rending of a long rectangular pool and brick patio surrounded by domed black pool cage. Also, schematics of aerial layout of house addition, with text "existing house to remain" on the center structure, and the pool noted on the right. — (left) Pool on the side of the house; (right) mom's addition + garage on the other side

The bees have arrived

A swarm, the most perfect swarm ever there was, appeared last Sunday in my sister-in-law’s neighborhood. Lisa, my sister-in-law, is my beekeeping mentor. When she called I had some friends over for dinner. “There’s a swarm,” I explained to them, “I must go.” (Thank you for understanding, dear friends.)

The swarm, a mass of a few hundred bees—small and manageable for its kind—was dangling from a 15 foot bottlebrush tree at eye level. This is what made it perfect. Sometimes swarms park themselves in the most awkward of places: the top of a high rooftop, the bottom of a heavy shed or behind wood paneling. Access to this swarm couldn’t have been better. The dimensionality of the colony was mesmerizing and we could get very close to it (when swarming, bees are predictably docile due to them not having a permanent home yet to defend). Check out the video here.

Lisa and I decided to simply clip the branch and place it in the hive, which we did without event. My brother filmed as I taped up the hive entrance and bundled it with a strap for the trek home, about a twenty minute drive which I made in full veil. You can see a little bit of the terror in my eyes.

Me in a bee suit, smiling but hesitant. Me holding the hive. A bee feeder in a plant pot with stones. The bee hive tucked into an enclave surrounded by oak branches. — Capturing my first swarm and bringing it home

The hard part now will be keeping them happy enough to stay put. I don’t particularly know how to keep bees happy, though I did play them jazz on the way home and cooked up some lemongrass oil the next day. I am feeding them sugar water to aid and abet their production of new wax cells (since my hive is brand new) so their queen can begin laying eggs and building the colony numbers.

The going advice is to start with two hives so that you can both compare what’s “normal” as you are learning and also to be able to borrow resources from one hive to correct deficiencies in the other. I am still on the wait list to buy another colony from local beekeepers, so if you hear of another swarm please let me know, I’ll try and come get it!

Swarm wanted. Seminole, Orlange, Volusia counties in FL. Text cassie 352 895 1409.

A few other things

I am still decompressing from life at Lattice. One of our monthly rituals at work was to put together Monthly Business Reviews of our product areas, and I can’t help thinking of my own progress in that way. I suppose I want to be clear-eyed about what’s working and what isn’t, and to be ambitious in the same ways I had applied myself at work. I do already have a couple learnings:

I should have taken a vacation vs. jumping straight in. I have had a lot of chores these past two weeks, and I worry about burning myself out.
Variety is the spice of my life but I need a regular routine. I need to limit how much I volunteer. There is always more to be done!

Cooking Lemongrass to make a jar of green oil, betony and sorrel on the chopping board, a classroom of deisgners, my 10 session medallian for mentoring on ADP List, a ladybug on an oak leaf, selfie with gardener friends, Basem holding a toothache plant flower, and a toad sleeping in the middle of a red head of lettuce — Gardening activity in early March. Making lemongrass oil. A UCF portfolio review. ADPlist milestone.

Volunteering

Helped out at school field day. Received several decibel noise alerts from my watch warning permanent hearing damage if the kids kept on screaming 😳
Joined the lovely Master Gardener herb garden team. Learned about loofah’s “front door” for harvesting seeds and some fun new Florida herbs like toothache plant.
Reached a 10 session milestone with ADPlist. All but one of my mentees have been women, and they often say how rare it is to see a female director. Too right. I’m humbled to support their journey!
Volunteered at Portfolio night for University of Central Florida’s graphic design program, thanks for inviting me Victor! So much talent at UCF. I left inspired.

Family & home

Mark and I went on a lovely date to The Table in Deland. Jerk pasta was fantastic, try it!
Walking with Mom daily. Took her for the ol’ annual colonoscopy. Good news, all clear 🎉 (my grandpa died of colon cancer so these are big deals in our fam)
Organized a 75th birthday party for Mom. Giant four layer coconut cake.
Met with the tax guy and got our ‘23 paperwork turned in. Thanks Jack!

Writing

I did daily pages (three pages handwritten every morning) for about five days then realized I didn’t have time for that, so I stopped.
Joined a short story critique group here in Lake Mary. They meet monthly and are serious about their craft and developing pieces toward submission. We’ll read stories ahead of time so the entire session is spent on critique.
Wrote 2000 words in my novel. Not nearly as much as I wanted but it’s a start.
Loved this very recent post on poetry craft from Maggie Smith

Gardening

Was gifted two navel orange trees. They say to plant citrus July-October, but I have to give my friend back her pots so I’ll risk planting them soon.
Relocated a bunch of native spiderwort, foraged red sorrel and betony tubers. Finally got the Cassava into the ground. Finished spreading the giant mulch pile. Moved a huge blue agave with Mark’s help. Outdoor work has been constant, exhausting, and rewarding.
Bean clearing the shed and soon-to-be-demolished garage; emptying the garage is my next big and pressing project.
Look at this fun game that appeared in my facebook ads. I would loved to have made something like this!
Vicious Gardens, a stunningly illustrated ‘Devious Game of Horticultural Supremacy’ by Ross Bruggink
Discovered some fascinating research on wax moth larvae as a potential clue toward more quickly and effectively breaking down plastic. Here are my chickens going to town on some old wax moth cocoons.
Dug up a dwindling lemon tree only to reveal its horrific roots. Look!
This is why you wash the dirt away from thee roots before you plant a tree, so you can see what’s going on and prevent the roots from continuing to grow in a circular motion around the trunk which would eventually strangle the tree. I snipped off what I could, we’ll see if she recovers.
Last but not least, if anyone wants spotted bee balm babies, let me know! They are a pollinator magnet and make a potent tea (contains thymol so use with caution).