Sunrise was at 4:05 this morning, and it will not set until 11:33 tonight for 19 hours 27 minutes above the horizon. The days are beginning to lengthen more slowly; the summer solstice is still a month off but definitely approaching. It’s twilight all night, now, with the sun only getting about 5° below the horizon. In compensation, it’s now more than 45° high at noon. Still not quite reliably above freezing at night, but I’ve started leaving the hardening plants out, under floating row covers. Froecast next week are for low 30’s at the coldest, so I’m going to start getting the rest of the transplants out (at least in the daytime) and start planting as soon as the rototilling is done.

RhubarbThe lilacs are budded out enough I can tell which branches are dead and prune them away, something they’ve needed for several years. To my surprise many of the “dead” branches had side shoots with live buds, so I didn’t have to remove as much as I thought I would. The Amur maple needs the same treatment, but the buds aren’t quite large enough yet to be sure which branches are actually dead. You can tell it’s an import – the wild roses are well leafed out, the balsam poplars are shedding their sticky bud covers, and the rhubarb is almost ready to cut lightly. The white violets are actually blooming next to the house, and a number of perennials have new leaves.

It’s Haiku day on the blogathon, so I thought I’d put in a link to a haiku I posted earlier.

#WriteMotivation Check-in:

1. Get the garden going. Given the earlier springs up here lately, I’ll try to get the beans started indoors by April 25 and the squash by April 30; plant outdoors before Memorial Day. Get seeds in before Memorial Day if possible. This will involve getting the hoops to support plastic covers up on all three raised beds.

Seeds and some transplants are waiting on getting the rototilling done, but the beds are fertilized, have soil amendment added, and ready to till. Hoops and plastic are ready.

2. Keep up daily blogging using my existing schedule: Alaska weather Monday, review Tuesday, quotation context Wednesday, wild card Thursday, Jarn’s Journal (back history on my sf novels) Friday, Science/technology/health Saturday, and Six Sentence Sunday Sunday.

Fine so far.

3. Keep up Context? Tweets daily @sueannbowling

Fine so far.

4. Put at least two interesting science links a day on Homecoming’s page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Homecoming/109303925759274

Fine so far.

5. Get outdoors for at least a couple of hours a day when the weather cooperates, either gardening or tricycle riding.

I’m going to have to count the time I spend at the Farmers Market. I’ve been working on the garden, but haven’t dared take any long trike rides as I never know when the rototiller and/or handyman will get here. I hope that’s out of the way soon; I’m running out of things to do in the garden and yard until the rototilling is done.

6. Read over entire trilogy for flow; put bits on Six Sentence Sunday; find a beta reader or two if possible.

I’ve read it over, the Six Sentence Sunday posts are scheduled for the rest of the month, and I think I have one beta reader.