Three cool things

about a garden, Big Yellow Bus, and an evening with Mo Green

Dear Frog Troublers, it has been a week. I’m going to keep this post short, then sit down with Bea to read and reply to last week’s wonderful comments. But first I want to tell you three good things:

1. We have a garden!

!!!

This is our first real garden—ever—because our land is so shady we mostly grow shade-tolerant plants (and herbs, some might remember, in a wagon we wheel around to sunny spots). So did we cut down a bunch of trees? Nope! We joined forces with our awesome and talented neighbor, Daniel, who built a massive structure in his flat and sunny yard, just up the hill. Check it out:

Daniel used scrap oak boards left behind by our mutual friend Michael, and cut them into a tall keep-the-deer-out fence and six large beds. Those are layered with newspaper, cardboard, compost, and topsoil. The only cost, other than Daniel’s very considerable time, was the topsoil/compost we had delivered (thank you, Chatham Chatlist, for the recs!), plus seeds and a few seedlings.

This was all happening when I was busier than I’ve been in a long time—and I stay pretty busy! It’s an enormous gift, to have a neighbor who wants to invite you into something as special as a garden—and who’s done most of the hard work of building it (along with his dad and stepmom, Daniel Sr. and Pamela). The girls and I go up every afternoon to add plants, plant seeds, add new beds, and play in the sprinkler.

We planted sunflowers yesterday along the edges.

You can already see the beneficial wildlife coming around: pollinators like bees and butterflies (Daniel Sr. told us he saw a hummingbird, too), and Harriet spotted this Fowler’s toad:

As for plants, so far we have four varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, lettuces, squash, two kinds of peas, dill, basil, garlic, cilantro, sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano, chives, and tarragon. Plus sunflowers, nasturtiums, marigolds, and we plan to plant zinnias and watermelon. We’re learning about plant companions and natural pest control, and are happy to hear any suggestions for how to manage this undertaking:

Definitely more to come on the garden front!

2. This week it was announced that I am one of the 2024-2025 National Humanities Center fellows. I’ve known about this for a couple of months, but am really excited to share the news with you here. As a fellow, I’ll have all next year to work on Big Yellow Bus in the company of thirty other scholars and writers from around the country and the world. Here’s a little more about the Center, which is located in Research Triangle Park:

The National Humanities Center is the world’s only independent institute dedicated exclusively to advanced study in all areas of the humanities. Through its residential fellowship program, the Center provides scholars with the resources necessary to generate new knowledge and to further understanding of all forms of cultural expression, social interaction, and human thought. Through its education programs, the Center strengthens teaching on the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels. Through public engagement intimately linked to its scholarly and educational programs, the Center promotes understanding of the humanities and advocates for their foundational role in a democratic society.

To say I’m excited is a huge understatement—I was lucky to spend a month there, two summers ago, and the level of support and friendship and encouragement and inspiration I got from the other writers was transformational. I still can’t believe I’ll have a whole year to write and study.

3. My friend Cat Warren and I want to invite you to this County-to-County evening with Anderson Clayton and Mo Green on May 17. Anderson is our down-to-earth, young, highly effective chair of the NC Democratic Party, and Mo is a long-serving champion of public education in NC, running for NC Superintendent of Public Instruction. Mo is just the best, and everyone who learns more about his story gets inspired. So be one of those folks at County-to-County, and support their program of dedicated canvassers across the state!

Sign up here—we’d love to see you!

Finally, Happy Anniversary to Mamie and Grampa! 51 years! More than half a century of true love!

At the Tina Turner musical

Lots of love from us, the FTT.

P.S. Bea took this photo of our volunteer peaches: