getting things done: day 1

I decided late last week, after talking about how bored I've been in 2013 and learning that I have at least "a couple of weeks" more on my "sabbatical," that this is the week I am going to start accomplishing things again, at the one-big-task-per-day-rate that I was accomplishing things at back in September and October before I went to Italy and learned to love siestas.

So this morning, I set the alarm for no reason other than I made myself, and got up and out of the house to run errands and start tackling tasks on my new 18 item to-do list. The first three items on the list involve my backyard and today I accomplished 1.5 of them.

1) Finish weeding, cleaning and mulching final two gardens.
-- I finished one of the two gardens today, after going to Home Depot for more mulch.

2) Replant herb garden.
-- DONE! I had just two herbs that survived the winter: my sage and peppermint. So at Home Depot I restocked on sweet basil (for pizza and italian food), sweet mint (for mojitos) and cilantro (for guacamole). I also decided to attempt growing chili peppers this year: jalepeno and serrano (both for guacamole... my neighbors have an avocado tree :)

Cilantro, Sage and Sweet Basil

Sweet Mint

Peppermint

Jalepeno and Serrano Chili Pepper Plants. Should see peppers in about two months.

And tomorrow, Food Forward is coming to harvest ALL my kumquats and oranges to donate to local food pantries and organizations serving those in need. (So I don't have to worry about them falling all over my yard and rose garden and ending up in my green recycling bin.) This is a hold-over from my February to-do list, when I started the process with Food Forward. Even though it's taken a while, it's remarkably easy -- just sign up online, they contact you and send a "scout" to see your trees, then schedule the date for volunteers to come harvest. And then you get a tax deduction for the donation!

Here's the "before" shot of the kumquat tree... the "after will look much less orange :)