Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

This started with adding up things for my own reference.

Workouts (defined as chunks of exercise I put into the same note in Evernote, sometimes covering two or three pages): 138. Most of these chunks include at least the half dozen things that are part of my shoulder PT.

Menstrual periods: 14, ranging in length from 3-18 days, for a total of 83 days last year.

Freelance clients: 5

Books read: 49. Thirteen were rereads, and the rest were new to me. This doesn't include shorter reading, either online or individual stories in a collection.

Things planted in the garden: 14. Seven of those were successful, two were interesting failures (the thyme and radishes both turned out to be nice ornamentals, but neither was any use in the kitchen), three were unsuccessful, and I'll find out about the crocuses and clover in the spring. Broken down another way, that's 11 kinds of plant I bought at the garden center and transplanted into my garden; two I tried to grow from seed; and one that we planted as bulbs. (We planted two kinds of clover, I think three of tomato, and I don't remember how many kinds of lettuce.)

New vegetables tried: two

A few minutes ago, I glanced out the front window and saw 42itous and her daughter in the front yard, so I went downstairs to say hi and ask what they were doing.

42itous showed me a bowl of nettle leaves, from the back yard, and I thanked her for going after them. She said she had barely made a dent; cattitude or I should go after them with gardening gloves and a long-sleeved shirt.

The front yard has some volunteer* lamb's-quarters, and 42itous was putting a bit of that into the bowl with the nettle leaves. I asked about eating it raw, and she said you could but it has no noticeable flavor, which I have now confirmed. I asked if she knew that wood sorrel is edible, and picked a bit to nibble on after she said yes, then they went home and I came back up here to have tea.

ETA: I try to note when I try new kinds of food—which for these purposes means something like lamb's-quarters or mangosteen, not a new recipe for goulash or cake. There are fewer of these as time goes on, not because I have less interest in novelty, but because I already tried more of the plants (and animals and fungi) that are known to be edible.

*a weed is a plant you don't want. I may pull these out if we need the space for cucumber, tomatoes, corn, or squash, but it doesn't show the mint's tendency to run rampant. Meanwhile, I had been thinking of buying milkweed seeds, but the question turns out to be whether/how much I will need to pull out so it doesn't shade the vegetables.