April's Sabbatical Blog

  Since I will be away through most of the planting and early gardening season, I decided not to plant a garden this year.  It's the first time in as long as I can remember that I haven't had something edible growing in my yard.  Perhaps a late garden will start well in July!  In the meantime, we are trying to eat locally as much as possible.  There's a thicket of wild blackberries just down the road from us, so Deborah had blackberry cobbler for her birthday on Monday.  Having access to a couple of kayaks and being right on the sound makes eating local quite easy.  Well, maybe not easy, because there is a lot of work in harvesting oysters, shucking them, disposing of the shells so they don't pose laceration threats to any who encounter them, setting pots, cleaning crab (those claws pinch!) etc.  Even so, it's fun work, and the meals we've eaten from what we've caught, picked, prepared and enjoyed have been wonderful.   This week's reading list has included a couple of Carla Neggers' mystery novels: Saint's Gate and The Harbor.  I also am rereading Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Up next is Franciscan Conspiracy, a novel about the theft and concealment of the body of St. Francis.  Peace and much love to all! April