WHO NEEDS A GARDEN

Yesterday was surprisingly sunny even though I wasn't in the office, so in the morning I took advantage of that remarkable coincidence to transplant a bunch of potted beans and peas so the crows will have something to steal while I'm in the office. These days they just look darkly at my yucky garlic and covered radishes while swearing in Crow. A small band of monkeys also passed quietly through our garden around breakfast time (I didn’t hear a thing) and chewed off only the more select shiitake buds; we later saw them ambling well-fattened down the road ahead of us, a lot of young acrobatic mouths to feed in springtime.

As the whole area sprouts, the deer are already disdaining my spinach, so we may get more spinach than we expected. But we're finding more and more wild greens this year, so up to a point who needs a garden while Eden is around. On yesterday's afternoon walk in the northern neighborhood, to a seldom-visited but venerable temple where the ancient weeping cherry trees cascade in bloom like scented pink waterfalls, we found a mountain stream full of beautiful wild watercress, green bunches of which we pulled up by the roots and put in a big tub of water on the deck where it can keep growing. I have to go back there again and look for wild horseradish. Speaking of roots, that long afternoon walk also means that I still have five bags of ginger to plant when the weather and I get around to it. It's hard to get two eccentrics like me and the weather together.