Sunday.

Cool so far this morning.  Cool enough that I debated wearing the winter robe but settled for the light summer robe.  We should have sun and the temperature should get up into the mid 70s.  Nice for work in the gardens.  I transplanted the creeping thyme and lavender, brought the rosemaries and pesto basil inside.  Our weather people predict overnight temps in the 40s and low 50s for the rest of the week.  I need to find space inside for my scented geraniums.  Otherwise, I need to harvest some lemon balm before cleaning out that area as well as the stevia from another area.

Lambert Strether posting at Naked Capitalism asks a very good question:  what are the long-term unemployed (or as Strether says, "disemployed") doing with their time?  His comments remind me of a point Dmitri Orlov made in one of his posts some time ago:  jobs may have disappeared but work always remains.  We are used to an economy in which we sell our labor for money that we exchange for the things we need (food, clothing, etc.)  Though we may not have a job the work of obtaining the things we need remains.

Monday.

It was a very pretty and mild day yesterday.  More of the same for today, they say.  I got the lemon balm cut and drying.  I had thought I would pull the remaining plants but I have changed my mind.  I will leave it for another cutting.  I need to grind the dried leaves today so I can cut and dry some of the stevia.  I collected a few of the spent flower heads from the hyssop which are dropping seeds now.  Those are drying on a small plate on top of our fridge.  Next week I will collect the seeds in an envelope for next season.  The bees are still working over the remaining blossoms on the hyssop which aren't many so I am debating when to start cutting the plants to dry the leaves.  I think I told you that the shiso is blooming.  Rather pretty but not enough to plant next year.  I noticed that it isn't attracting any bees.  As I clear an area I am putting down a layer of newspaper mostly to keep the soil from being splattered out by rain of which we have had an abnormal number of very hard episodes.  Over the fall and winter (as long as we are clear of snow) I will add more layers to inhibit weeds.  I also took cuttings from the scented geraniums hoping they will root.  I look at the cuttings I took from other plants late last week.  So far they are still looking pretty good.  Hoping they produce plants.

Tuesday.   I have stevia to grind.  The peppermint is next on my cutting/drying list if the weather holds.  So far it looks like the rain that was supposed to come in tonight is coming in this morning and will clear off by afternoon.  It may or may not give us anything.

Update: minimal rain--sprinkles and not much else.  I have been unable to get on Bloglines for two days now.  Damn!!  Have no idea what is wrong but about half of the blogs I usually follow are inaccessible.