I spent most of the weekend over at my mom’s. There, laundry got done, dinners got made, preserves got preserved and the garden got weeded something fierce.

Laundry was important because I am still not up to an optimal number of workout clothes. Dinner tonight was clam spaghetti, modified to almost no fat in deference to my cranky digestive system.

Preserves were why I went over to help my mom, but my mom’s friend came over and wanted to do it. Peach preserves were made-some with Amaretto, some with vanilla, some by themselves and some with Grand Marnier or some similarly orange tasting alcohol. I brought home one of the vanilla ones.

Since I got bumped from doing preserves, I went out into the garden instead. The garden has needed weeding for at least a month. It was supposed to be a joint project with me and my sister, but she’s not gotten up to help care for it more than a couple of times since we put it in for my mom as a Mother’s Day gift back in May.

As a result, the clover was out of control and flowering, there were several official looking plants that were anything but, and some of the mint from the (always trying to spread) mint patch had taken root under the beans and near the flat parsley. The planted stuff hadn’t been thinned since the last time I did it well over a month ago.

The chard was a bust-slugs had eaten it all, pretty much. The nasturtiums were overrunning their beds, and the tomatoes were nothing to brag about, it being a bad year for tomatoes in this part of the world.

On the other hand, the carrots were thriving in spite of being crowded, the turnips were coming along just fine, the flat parsley was happy and I got several good handfuls of beet greens.The leeks also need thinning, but are growing away nicely in the meantime.

I worked for hours, clearing away clover, pulling up shallowly rooted plants that were crowding out the vegetables and yanking away several bristly broad-leaved dandelion looking things that hurt to touch without gardening gloves.

When I was finished, there was a noticeable difference-it was obvious that there were rows instead of undifferentiated entangled choking green. There was space in between the plants that were no longer fighting one another for room and sunshine. There was a sense of order and serenity to it again.

And I felt a measure of peace that has been missing from my life for the past month.