New Year Celebrations

Roses for my Mother

April 13 and 14 are when we celebrate the Sri Lankan cultural New Year.  It is known as Sinhala and Tamil New Year because it used to be celebrated mostly by these two major ethnic groups, but, almost everyone in Sri Lanka celebrates this event, so I prefer to call it the Sri Lankan New Year.  I've written about it in previous years (here, and here, for example) so I won't go into details about it, again.  It is a holiday in Sri Lanka.

But, it isn't a holiday over here, and daughter had to work, today.  However, I did my best to mark the occasion with a small celebration.  I picked fresh flowers from the garden - jasmines for the altars and roses to place next to my mother's picture on the mantelpiece.  Then, I cooked kiribath (milkrice) and seeni sambol (spicy onion relish) for brunch.  

It was a chilly, cloudy day, today.  I spent the afternoon reading blogs and playing sudoku, etc.  In the early evening, I watered the back garden and did a little more weeding, in the side yard, this time.  I had put down flattened cardboard boxes in the side yard in an attempt to control the weeds and it is working for the most part.  However, a few weeds had found a few openings where the boxes left some gaps and they were coming up!  I managed to pull most of them.  

Afterwards, I tried to make a barrier of sorts to discourage the garden cats from trying to dig around and fertilize my tomato and pepper plants:

Cat Defense

   

Tomato "Cage"

June, over at Live and Learn-Toss and Turn, has posted pictures of the beautiful fences her husband and son had built to protect her raised beds vegetable plots.  Now that's what I need for my vegetable garden!  Proper raised beds and sturdy fences!  But, that's a "someday" project.  

In the meantime, I collected some sticks and placed them around each plant to deter the cats.  When I ran short of sticks, I broke a few branches from the curry leaf tree and used them, instead.  I am particularly proud of my tomato "cage" made of three sticks tied together with a long strand of runner grass stem that I had weeded, earlier!  LOL!  Is that natural and organic or what?  

The tomatoes and peppers are planted next to the bed with the green beans and I noticed that a few of the beans have started to sprout!  The tomato and pepper plants were an after-thought!  Otherwise, I would have asked M to make the bean planting bed a little wider and planted the tomatoes and peppers in the bed.  Maybe something to consider for next year!  Or when we plant the next cool weather crop!

Meanwhile, the wildflowers are enjoying the cooler weather:

Mixed Wildflowers and Irises

Bachelor's Button or Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)

Later in the evening, I watched news, practiced the piano, and spoke with friends A and R.  Daughter and I also placed a grocery order to be picked up, tomorrow.  

Dinner was rice with leftover chicken and green beans stir fry.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- Being able to celebrate our New Year with daughter, this year
- Flowers from the garden
- Being able to order groceries online for curbside pick up
- Water for the garden
- Chatting with friends

Today's joyful activities include celebrating the New Year and gardening.

Plans for tomorrow include picking up the groceries.

How was your day?  What are your plans for tomorrow?