Another Sunny Day

I so enjoy looking out my windows to see the daffodils in bloom. Every room in the house affords a great splash of yellow and green. Even though it is only in the low 40's (F), the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home, as the song goes. No matter what task or chore is ahead of me, The sun never ceases to make things better.

Spring and Fall always seems like a time to stop and reflect on life; and how precious it all is. It is both melancholy and reassuring at the same time; the death of winter on top of the birth of spring. I guess it is all about balance; of remembering what is lost, and being grateful for what is.

I came across the following quote that really resonated with me:

"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity."
--Edvard Munch

So, every flower I smell, each gust of wind, and each ray of sunshine on my face must be from the good side of Eternity.

Ok, enough of being maudlin; time to rake some leaves!

Rainy Day Baking

Woke up to rain today-and an aching back and legs. The cause of my pain and suffering?

Leaves

Yes, leaves-the bane of my existence. The good news is that two weekly attacks on the little nasty buggers has reduced their numbers to just one pile. I can now enjoy looking at all the daffodils coming into bloom without grimacing at the piles of brown marring the whole picture.



The battle is not without causualties, though. My upper back and ankles took some direct hits, but nothing that my old friend NSAID can't cure. I just hobbled out of bed this morning and steamed my pathetic, middle aged self until I could reach down and actually touch my toes instead of wishing I could wash them.

My sore throat and stuffy nose is also a direct result from breathing in those nasty little beast's dying body bits. So, I decided to whine to my good friend and fellow co-worker LindaWithaY to play hooky from work. That is, of course, if SHE hadn't already called dibs; luckily for me, she had not (she'd rather have Easter off).



So, having only to hobble around my house instead of the greenhouse, I decided to ignore the desire to sit and watch TV all day and do some doggy baking.

I decided to make salmon treats, since I needed to use up the package I had in the freezer. Also in the freezer was a package of gluten-free baking mix-perfect for pups who may have wheat allergies.

As I didn't want DH to confuse salmon cookies with dog treats (he likes to sample the goods behind my back), I got out the cookie cutters. I chose two shapes; a bone and a fish.

Get it? Fish + bone = fishbones!
(I just crack myself up, sometimes)


I made three batches, so I should have some for a few weeks. These are the Very Good Gurl cookies, so they are just for pups on their best behavior. They are dairy, soy, and wheat free, so hopefully they will be good for Fi and her cousin, Brittany.

The garden is coming to life, once again. In the front garden, the Cornus mas tree is almost in full bloom. It has bright yellow flowers that one could mistaken for a forsythia, which also blooms near the same time. There are dark purple-black buds on the purple redbud tree, and most of the perennials are in various stages of poking through with some green leaves.

I have almost finished with the first round of clean-up in the back garden and then it is on to the front. I have taken a few stabs at it already. I did a bit of tidy-up on the sidewalk beds and put in some pansy and dianthus around the mailbox, but that's really just scratching the surface.

I am glad to report that I am holding fast to my Winter Solstice resolution of tackling one small job a day and one large job a week and giving myself credit for getting a task done-regardless of how big or small.


Some days, though, it's tough to look at the list as 1/2 full instead of overfilled.

Yes We....uhhh....Me Can

It's that time of year when I start to feel overwhelmed with all the tasks to be done.

The leftover leaves mock me and so, being the zen master of procrastination, I just look away and find some other job to do.

I did get the three raised vegetable beds finished, which I am quite pleased about. (I'll post some pics later). I filled them first with some leaf mold, then followed that with some composted wood chips, and topped it all off with some fresh garden soil.

Many, Many thanks to my parents for helping me construct the beds. We even made a vertical potato growing bin, which I am dying to get some 'taters into.

I quickly discovered that I need some fencing. It seems that someone has been digging big holes in my brand new beds. Gee, I wonder who would do such a thing???? I'll tell you who; it's that 3 foot long mole that I call a dog, is who.

After sniffing about, digging is her favorite hobby. That girl can DIG. She has already sniffed out, dug up and ATE three of the seed potatoes that I planted. That's 50% of my crop, right there. Darn varmits.


While the raised bed job was quite an accomplishment, there are so many spring jobs that still need attending to;

• I have some major pruning and whacking and weeding to do in the front.
• Gotta cut down all the ornamental grasses.
  
• tidy up the patio
• move the tree hydrangea to a new (say it: healthier) location.
• chop out the fence;
• get the fountain up and running.
• attend to the back border.
• fertilize the bulbs.
• mulch the rose bed.
• mulch the hill bed.
• I have to get some evergreen screens in between our house and the house next door that's up for sale.

And, I'm still lost on what to do with the area that my bedroom window looks out onto. It has to be something I can run over with a vehicle (gate is on this side), and something that can tolerate seasonal water runoff. All I have now is ditch lilies, which look fine, but there is large season of ugly to contend with. I am seriously thinking of some type of mint, or some other thing that is quick to get started in spring. It travels, I know, I know. But it has to be a contender with all the weed seeds that get washed into the rocks.

Oh, well, as I weed, I will pontificate further on it.

Seeds are up!

Well, not all of them, but the Swiss chard, the kale and the turnip greens are. The nasturtiums are big, tough, dry seeds, so I had to file the seed coat down and then soak them, so they will be the slowest to come up in this batch.

As I was figuring out my germination calender I discovered I was a month behind on onions! Oh, well, I will tackle them tomorrow and hope for the best this fall. I was really hoping for some bigger bulbs than last year, but even small, they are more fun to eat than what I can buy.

Of course, they are calling for more snow flurries on Wedesday. This is really getting irksome. I don't care how little it snows or how much-I WANT WARMTH! Okay... rant over.

Fiona just loved the snow, so at least someone in this household can appreciate all of Nature. She loves to root around in it, sniffing for who-knows-what.