We had been in a spring drought that was becoming scary, brush fires around the Cape, threat of more. Seedlings always needing water. Then it rained, then rained some more, then more rain and then still more. Finally Friday morning the sun returned. By afternoon it clouded over, but we got into the garden. Woody planted parsnips. I planted herbs we had bought in the city yesterday into my new beautiful herb garden. Most of the thyme I transplanted in the fall from my weedy herb bed along with lovage, the surviving lavender plant all made it through the winter with little protection. Friday morning I put in some rosemary, tarragon, lemon verbena one more thyme, a lemon thyme and one lonely dill plant since we are very late getting in our dill seeds and I need some today. Then I transplanted the sweet marjoram and the summer savory I had started in the greenhouse. The raised bed is filling up nicely. I don’t want to put the purple basil out yet since basil is very tender and nights have been quite chilly. Then I planted shallots where lettuce had not come up. There’s plenty of lettuce that did germinate. I think we shall have our first spring salad tomorrow, Sunday. by the case. Also there’s not much variety available here. We hit two stores Thursday in the rain. We had gotten very low. We also bought bourbon for the Derby Party today. It will be smaller than usual, only 14 of us, but I look forward to it. I’m really the only person there who actually watches a lot of the Derby Prep races and knows something about most of the horses, since I’ve observed them over the winter and spring. I’ll write their names on slips of paper to be drawn blindly from a hat. Last year I had to double up on the favored horses so everybody could get a horse. This year with the usual 20 horses, people who draw the long shots will get 2 horses for the price of one –which is $1 apiece. Winner gets all $15. I bought a caramel cake at Whole Foods. Martha is making cookies, Marieke is making deviled eggs and Janet is making some veggie dish. I will be starting my cooking in an hour. We’ll thaw gravlax and serve it with a horseradish-ricotta sauce; I’ll make a cocktail sauce for the cooked shrimp; then I’ll make little meatballs remoulade, Italian mushrooms flavored with parmesan, etc, guacamole.  I’ll also serve hot spanakopita. Woody with Dale’s help will make mint juleps. I am starting to read the manuscripts for my June juried intensive poetry workshop. I’ll read one a day three days a week and make a couple pages of notes besides what I write on the poems themselves. I give my printed out notes to the poet at the end of their conference.They get a lot for their money. But this weekend is the party and planting. I want to get the pumpkins out of the greenhouse and Woody wants to plant dill, the last of the hardy crops to go out – very late this year because of the lengthy reading tour and all the rain since. It has been a cool wet May so far but all the cole crops and the salad crops love this weather as does the spinach.