What a different a day makes ..

or two days, or three -- especially in a garden.

My little garden microcosm is no exception. Look at today's photo (taken yesterday afternoon) and then go back and look at Saturday's photo. Amazing, isn't it! Yesterday all the plants just had their original seed leaves (cotyledons to all of us seed geeks), and now most of them are starting to get their second set -- the leaves that look like what the grown plants leaves will be. In two weeks, I'll be having baby lettuce salads with a fruity vinaigrette dressing, and won't that be very, very good.

While I very much like these containers and enjoy poking in the dirt, I'm finding myself at gardening odds. In my big earth beds, I had something to do every. single. day. I'd plant a square foot of something, or pick radishes to give to a friend and her family (I don't like radishes, but after a long, gray winter I just had to plant something that would grow quickly to harvest size), or pull baby weeds that would grow after I turned the soil and exposed them to light. I'd have to water every few days, or transplant seedlings, or move mulch from around the perennial daisies and coneflowers. I'd spend hours out there in the morning, just zen-ing out while I was working, or meditating about different things, or feeling my heart and spirit mend. Here, all I have to do is go out every day and take a photo of what's growing. I don't think there will ever be the same level of involvement that I had with my earth beds. For instance, I can't see myself sitting out on my patio tending plants and crying over a broken relationship or disappointment in my job. And maybe that's a good thing? I don't know. It's good, I guess, but just very different.

I found out why I had wasps on the patio! It seems those crafty little beasties are building a nest in the corner where my upstairs neighbor's deck adjoins the wall. When I spotted it Sunday evening, it was the about 2" in diameter and contained about 10 cells. Now it's a good 5" in diameter and has 35 cells -- yup, I counted them. I called the apartment manager, and the exterminator will be taking care of it on Thursday. Normally I'm thankful for bees and the busy work they do, but wasps are a different story. The gloves come off and it's a fight to the finish. At least this time I don't have to worry about taking care of it! One of the bennies of apartment life! I still don't know why they were eating the glider ...

PS -- I'm really not writing in stream of consciousness mode. I'm putting in spacing between paragraphs, really I am! It just isn't sticking when I post the entry! Blog help anyone?