July 6

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A day in the garden. A lush, overgrown, unkempt jungle. It's been neglected during all these weeks of rain. Gave it a thorough weeding. Many 5 gallon buckets of weeds. The three composters piled high and groaning with green for them to digest. Started mowing and weeding Chy-chy's garden - with scissors, the mower won't work when the grass gets long and flops over.

The greens are all thriving - kale, mustard, collards, chard. Picked a big trash bag full, maybe 5 lbs. Ate the first ripe Mexican Wild tomatoes. Peppers and zucchini have set. Herbs doing well. Too well, the cilantro's already past and the basil has bolted. The tarragon is thriving, the first time I've had success with it. Made a salad with a tarragon-dijon-lemon juice-garlic vinagrette on Sunday. Exquisite.

Clear, cloudless, 70's a slight cooling breeze. Offline all day. Making notes, reading. In the office under the desnely shaded grape arbor, pendulent with pale translucent clusters of buckshot-sized fruit.