§ Monday was my one year anniversary at my current job. It is wild to think about the variety of challenges I’ve had the opportunity to work on over the course of just one year. It has been stressful at times but more than anything else I find it totally invigorating.

§ I finally finished booking hotels for our honeymoon roadtrip next month. Nine days. One thousand miles along the St. Lawrence river. We will be staying in five different cities and seeing countless more along the way. I can’t wait.

Our wedding is in 13 days. Weeknote 28. How’s that for a stressful thought?

§ All of the super hot weather last week taught me about white drupelet syndrome—where excessive UV exposure causes parts of a raspberry fruit to turn white. It looks bizarre but is completely edible!

§ Speaking of that hot weather, it finally broke on Monday and dropped down to the mid-70s, giving me the opportunity to put some of my new plants in the ground. So now I have six tomatoes, five peppers, one tomatillo, and one mystery plant that might be a groundcherry or might just be another tomatillo.

§ How have I never sung the praises of organza bags here? They’ve become an indispensable garden tool over the past couple of years. They’re ubiquitous, cheap, weather proof, reusable, and they protect developing fruits from the scourge of hungry birds and nibbling insects while not impeding light or airflow.

§ The nights have been strangely quiet here. It is always difficult to pinpoint the absence of something but it finally clicked last night: I haven’t heard any cicadas this year. I guess Ohio narrowly avoided a rare double-brood emergence.

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