Exciting stuff keeping me busy

I just became the proud owner of this ten-year-old bicycle, which has been ridden only a few times. My sister was going to send me hers, and I mentioned it while on my last hike. It turned out that this bike was also available for cheap and was right in Bellingham, too! I picked it up yesterday from my friend's home and today I bought a helmet, bicycle pump, and a lock. We had to deflate the front tire to get it off (past the brakes) and stick it in the back of my car, but it's home now and only needs to be turned upright and taken for a spin. That's one thing going on, and now I can put it aside while I concentrate on the garden!

Our community garden is taking shape, and we are all working in our areas to get our soil ready for planting already-started seedlings. I bought 4.5 cubic feet of garden compost this morning, and the three bags in the right-hand side of the picture are ready for me to take out the contents and hoe it into the ground. This is quite a lot of work, and I'm learning from watching my neighbors as they prepare their own plots. I will be spending more money this year for a bit of return than during any other year, but I am such a neophyte at this I'm confused by what is the best and most productive way to do this. We do have one guy who knows exactly what to do and is making the rest of us envious.

One guess where his plot is. The center plot is a community garden for all of us to use, and people have been putting plants in there one at a time. I'm just hoping to get my own veggies into the ground by the end of the week. Things keep coming up and interfering with my plans. And then yesterday I managed to cut my left middle finger when slicing up an apple, right at the knuckle joint, and every time I stress it, it begins to bleed all over again. I won't work in the garden without gardening gloves on, so I'm not too worried about it, but it makes me angry at myself.

And right about now, early afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, the transit of Venus is beginning. We cannot see it here, as the clouds are covering the sun and spitting a bit of rain as well. (Perfect for working in the garden if I can just get everything else accomplished first.) The planet Venus will pass in front of the sun for the next six hours. The picture below was taken in 2004, and today's transit will be the last one until 2117.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day

The little dot on the right-hand side of the sun is Venus. I'm sure a picture of today's event will appear on the APOD site tomorrow or very soon, at any rate.

Since there are so many things going on in my life at the moment, I neglected to write a post this past weekend and am determined to get one up before going out to dig in the garden. Spreading compost and planting stuff is a lot of work, although very rewarding nevertheless. I also bought zinnias and marigolds to plant and will get those in this week as well, to help control pests, my blogging buddies tell me. I can hardly wait until I have plants to show you, but I can't accomplish everything all at once, although I do try.

This past Sunday I made two skydives in very unsettled weather. Lots of clouds (you can't jump through clouds) meant we sat around for two hours before getting in the plane for our first skydive of the day. Sometimes it's harder to sit around than it is to jump. I was as tired when I left after two skydives as I was last week when I made four. When I got home I didn't get around to writing a post and hoped it would happen yesterday, but it didn't. I'm trying to tell myself that the deadlines I set for myself are mine alone and nobody is going to lose any sleep over my failure to publish a post, but it doesn't take away my desire to write one.

When the weather is fine this summer I will get to know my new bicycle, spend every other waking minute I can in the garden, and blog in between times. Oh, and reading YOUR posts is high on my list, so I need to make time for that. It's like missing a coffee date, otherwise.
:-)