Sentenced to hard work on Alcatraz

Actually, it was just for a couple of hours, and not terribly hard work at that. The National Park Service is working on restoring the gardens on Alcatraz, which were created and maintained by both civilians and inmates. They're mostly overgrown with weeds now (weeding was our main task), but some tough plants like roses, fuchsias, geraniums, and sundry bulbs are still surviving. Note that they receive no summer water (no rain!) other than what they can capture from the morning fogs. Anyhow, the Santa Clara Master Gardeners organized a volunteer group to help out one morning, for which we got ferry rides to/from the island and a free tour of the former penitentiary. Much fun!

I haven't been posting lately because I've been spending all my free time reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell in a race to finish before it was due (I made it, barely). I liked the book a lot, although I got bogged down in the early part and lost a week of reading while deciding whether it was worth continuing. I did, and it was, though I wish it had been 100-200 pages shorter. (Mr. Norell getting established in London was the tedious part for me.)

Tonight I finish writing xmas cards, a task that got displaced by the reading (priorities? what priorities?).

We're eating our first pea harvest of the season tonight -- whoo hoo!