i found out this morning that my next next door neighbors jen and franz's house was burgled over the weekend while they were away. the thief came in through a basement laundry window and then gained entry to their first floor condo. things stolen included a laptop and jen's wedding ring. i feel awful; first my next door neighbor margot had her house broken into back in january, and now this. i wonder if it's the same person? the only things i have of value in my own home is my laptop and my camera, and usually when i go out i take my camera. i should start hiding my laptop when i'm not home.

today i officially shut down my grow closet for the season; full disassembly will come later when i have time. i moved the last of my flower seedlings to my community garden plot. i was stopped by 2 lady landscapers who were curious to see what i had growing in my box. one of them warned me that it was still too early to plant some of the smaller seedlings, since they needed 2 inches worth of roots to survive. i'd never heard that before but there was no turning back for me.

after i finished planting i went around taking photos of the flowers in the garden. my favorite time to do that is on cloudy and semi-rainy days. raindrops on petals and leaves make for more dramatic plant photos. also when the weather is like that not too many people come out to garden so i usually have the whole place to myself.

a met another new gardener: 2nd year lynn. she's actually in a new plot this season, having suffered under a tall norwegian maple all last year. unfortunately her new plot is only one square away from her old one, but at least she has more sun now.

my mother called asking me to go to belmont to let the dog out. i was planning on going anyway to finish planting the flowers in the southeast corner garden.

i discovered that snapdragons like to be planted close (6"), since they're not particularly bushy plants. while it's too late to rectify that in my community garden plot, i made sure to group them closer together here in belmont. i worked the soil a little bit more, uprooting hidden chinese chives and grass clumps with a cultivator, making sure i wasn't digging too close to the house where they pumped termidor. i also tossed any rocks i found. i formed another row of bricks in the back, partly as a marker to show where the exterminators did their trenching work, but also so i could step across the garden area without walking in the soil. i actually quite enjoy laying down bricks in the garden; reminds me of days long ago playing with lego blocks.

my father planted some 'cosmopolitan' lilies in a container last year that i wanted to transplant into the southeast corner garden. dumping them out of the container exposed a mass of roots. i had to divide everything with a small saw. unfortunately the roots are somewhat delicate and most of them fell off when i tried to clear away the dirt from the lily bulbs. i was surprised to find many baby bulblets; not all of them produced, just a few. i picked them off and planted them on the western side of the house with the other bulbs and perennials. there were 7 adult lily plants but since they didn't fit my arrangement, i removed the 7th to the southwestern corner of the yard along with the orange daylilies.

as for the lily bulbs we purchased yesterday, they seem like leftovers because they weren't the best-looking of bulbs, but at least a few should survive. they had to be planted 6" deep so i ended up using my hands to dig the holes. fortunately the soil was relatively soft from not being stepped on.

finally i planted the snapdragons (11). i put a cage over them so hailey won't accidentally step on them. i also planted some daisies (4) on either side of the nearby rain barrel.

my mother came home around 4:30. i left soon after that, hoping to avoid the rain. it was already drizzling a little bit, but light enough that it didn't even soak my clothes. i brought home some food my mother picked up from the cafe (strapped to the rear rack of my fuji with bungie netting) which i later had for dinner.

my roommate told me tonight that he's going to hawaii next week to do some work at the mauna kea observatory, followed by a trip to new mexico, before returning home the first week of june. the life of an astrophysicist!