The day started out sunny and still and ended windy and chill. Today was our first visit to the garden for our annual garden work day. These days are to help keep the community gardens in good shape. This time there were more people than expected- at least 50 people showed up to stand patiently in line and receive assignments from the committee members. We were lucky to get the straight-forward job of pulling weeds and cleaning up the community composting pile. Strangely enough there were a large number of rocks tossed in the composting pile and by the end of our cleaning spree we had quite a good rock pile for future use. :)

Since there was such a wonderful turn out, our work time only lasted about two hours. So afterward we headed over to our lovely garden, just waking up from its long winter nap, and found that we had new neighbors. The univeristy (of Wisconsin-Madison in case you were curious) has decided to take over about 20 of the plots at the end of our row and make them into the university's organic garden. We helped Amy, head of the university's garden, move some rocks out of the adopted plots to allow the tiller to do its work on Monday. (If only we could use a tiller...) It sounds like a large and wonderful project that students in the AG department can come and learn about growing outdoors. I look forward to seeing the development of the large mass of land.

After some rest and relaxation from our activities, we happily went over to Burr and Natalie's for dinner and to play the Carcassonne expansion with the River, as well as Inns and Cathedrals. For dinner Mark and I were treated to one of Burr's favorite: Kentucky Kraut Sandwiches - a delicious treat. We brought over a potato bake made with food processor shredded red potatoes cooked in a bit of butter, salt and pepper with a topping of mild cheddar- a surprising success from a spur of the moment inspiration. I had an amazing time making the largest city I have ever seen- Mark helped with a key piece. Afterwards we played Mark's latest version of Ultra Violets. It is really cool to see how far a game can come from the intial idea. To top the night off, Natalie gave me a beautiful Rabbit's Foot Fern - a perfect prelude to Easter with its furry feet and an amazingly special gift.