Oh, Right. That OTHER Thing.

Here I am blathering on about enormous crowds for Easter dinner* and countrified Easter egg hunts, and completely failing to mention the real news: The tomato seeds have sprouted.

Yes. Despite my incredible laziness in the starting of the seeds and the fact that they wouldn't germinate and then the MiL told me the soil I found in the barn was proved useless last year so I had to take some old soil sitting around in a pot from last year and mix it with some compost and then scoop out the top half-inch of the Useless Soil in which my tiny, impossible-to-see seeds were planted--hoping I was scooping the seeds with the Useless Soil--and just plop that on top of the new/old soil in what is undoubtedly the worst and least professional seed-starting attempt in the history of gardening.

Despite all THAT, the seeds still germinated. Seeds sure are amazing and persistent little buggers.

The most germination came from the seeds I had saved from the Stupice tomatoes last year, which shocked me no end as I was (surprise!) not exactly precise in my following of acceptable seed-saving protocol. That is, I squeezed those seeds out of the tomatoes, soaked them for awhile but I don't know how long because I sort of forgot about them on top of the refrigerator, let them dry out on plates, and then stored them and hoped for the best.

Once again, the seeds will triumph despite my laziness.

I still have more seedlings than I'll need, but that's a good thing. Better than not having enough. And of course, there could still be some casualties. Especially since I'm obviously not exactly obsessing over them this year. But one way or another, there will be tomato plants in the ground in about a month.

Life (and the Tomato Crazy, albeit a subdued version of it) marches on.

* To answer your question Lindsey, there were 25 people. And Tina, the sideboard you asked about is actually called a credenza, I think. There are other pictures of it here and here. I believe it's Spanish in origin and from the 18th century, but my knowledge of antiques is extremely limited. It, like all the antiques at Blackrock, came with the house and was acquired by one of A.'s long-deceased ancestors. The MiL probably knows more about it. She usually does.

Edited to add: The MiL, as I suspected, had some more information on the credenza. She saw one nearly identical to ours in a museum collection that was 16th century Italian, so that's her guess. Maybe we need a whole "Antiques Roadshow" episode at Blackrock . . .