Rainy Day in May

Lucky me, spending a day at home attending a virtual conference and whiling away a rainy day. The garden seems happy for the rain, with a new crop of weeds sprouting as I type. I put the two adult Black Star hens in the portable coop and they are very happy to weed around the vegetable garden. On Saturday, they each laid two eggs but only two actually had shells.
I've planted sweet corn, pumpkins, winter squash, carrots, lettuce and rutabegas in the garden so far. I can't wait until it warms up a bit more at night and then I can put in the brocolli and tomato plants. Once the corn comes up, I'll plant the scarlet runner beans so they can climb up the stalks. Hopefully, the three sisters planting technique will be successful in my garden: the pumpkin vines should shade the roots and provide protection from predators; the beans fix nitrogen in the soil and provide structural support to the corn; the corn provides a support for the bean vines and shades the pumpkin plants from the summer sun.
My herb garden is weeded now, and looks happy. I think most of my mints survived the winter, which is nice, and my thyme is doing wonderfully. I have 12 basil plants, cilantro, flat leaf italian parsley, red thyme, bee balm, lemon balm and oregano to add to the bed. I also found a rosemary plant and a lavendar plant to grow in pots. I am still hopefully that I will find a bay tree, which will grow indoors in the winter along with the rosemary and lavendar. I am looking forward to having fresh bay leaves to add to soups and stews, and making my own herbes de Provence blend. Yum yum!
Aside from catching up on technical data and case studies, I love days like this because it allows me to do some baking and cooking that is hard to get done mid-week. I plan to roast a chicken for dinner, and prep some bread dough. Maybe I will make some kind of yummy bar with fresh rhubarb from the garden! Ahh, rainy days. How I love you!