The shrieks of outraged mockingbirds are a convenient indicator of the cats' locations these days. The thefts of mulch and the bits left scattered on the lawn have finally ended. The birds must have finished their yearly nest building and started their broods.

The other birds have withdrawn discreetly. The occasional flash of color marks the presence of one stopping to pluck tidbits wherever it may find some, but the really urgent search for food for demanding nestlings hasn't quite begun yet. It won't be long before the parent birds are hustling to build the numbers of their species readied to join their summer preparations for fall migration. The young must be well fledged and plump enough for their first trip before the food supplies dwindle.

I noticed another phenomenon of spring, somewhat akin to the principle that it will rain if you wash your car. Whenever one is quite tired from gardening, that will likely be the day that a long-awaited plant finally arrives in the mail needing to be set out as soon as possible. Sure enough, the day that I wore myself out mowing the lawn was the day that the sweet potato plants arrived in the mail.

Sweet potato plants are among the most wretched looking arrivals upon receipt, little more than spindly stems with a few little roots. They aren't dormant since they are frost tender plants that don't take a winter snooze, yet they aren't promisingly leafed out like most mail-order seedlings. Even onion plants look more lively than the lowly sweet potato plants bunched in a miserable clump. Yet, if one has faith and plants them in a sunny spot, they are likely to grow on to produce a nice crop of potatoes.

Since their allotted space had been overrun with daylilies, I planted them in the wide aisles between the tomato cages. The garden is crowded now and heavily shaded in most of the open beds, and sweet potatoes need sun to make their sugary flesh. They won't be dug until a frost that would kill the tomatoes anyway, and I made the aisles wide enough to let me walk down among them to harvest the fruit. The space is currently used by some broccoli plants, but they will grow upward and the sweet potato vines can run among the cages. Now all I have to do is figure out how to tiptoe among them when the tomatoes are ripe.

The first broccoli plants are making nice little heads now, with the biggest ones almost ready to pick. The cabbage butterflies have largely targeted the cabbage plants except for one hapless broccoli plant which must have drawn the attention of some eccentric butterfly. I hate using insecticides in the garden, so I may sacrifice the cabbages for the sake of the tastier broccoli.

That three week bout with the flu and the fire ants still has me scrambling to catch up in the garden. The spinach and early mustard are now bolting and need to be eaten or blanched and frozen for later use. The peppers need to go out as well as the last few flower seedlings in flats. I discovered that I forgot to put a pepper planting date in the organizer when I clicked through the entries and discovered that there was no mention of one even though it is almost time to plant the pumpkins and start more broccoli for the fall garden.

Yes, in about two weeks, it will be time to start broccoli seedlings for the fall planting dates six weeks later. They have to have time to grow up well enough to produce heads before a severe frost. I've got to order more peas and greens for the fall garden as well since I ran out of those seeds in my spring planting enthusiasm. The spring peas are blooming and should set pods pretty soon.

The pumpkins actually get planted somewhat later than the flats of broccoli seed so that they will mature just before frost. The closer you can get pumpkins and winter squash to ripen before a frost that would damage them, the longer they will last in a cool spot indoors without needing refrigeration or anything else to preserve them. Sweet potatoes and the pumpkin/winter squash tribe are most useful to the gardener in that respect if one's family will eat them. I have a custard recipe sweetened with brown sugar and spices that will get my finicky brother to eat some of these nutritional wonders, but he prefers it made with sweet potatoes over the pumpkins and winter squash.

The patchwork vest is progressing well, pinned together with safety pins and hung on my closet door above the star block quilt so I can guiltily nudge myself to work on it a little as well. I have to sigh heavily over the fabric.com sales and continue on with what I already have. This slowing-down-with-age business is getting pretty old itself.

I poked myself a bit with some library books while the rain was dissolving the garden into a mud puddle and learned some Fair Isle knitting techniques. I've got one Fair Isle based patch done and I've been looking through my crafting books for more patterns that can be adapted to practice this some more on other patches. I nearly have enough to assemble the vest if I put a fairly wide ribbing on the bottom and along the front edges to make a buttoned closure.

A solid-colored ribbing would be a welcome blast of blandness compared to the wild variety of knitting patterns strobing on my door awaiting the last few patches to finish the row. Then I have to try it on again and see if it will be long enough. At least it should scare away any would-be muggers if I wear it for shopping this fall.