Sewing Seeds

I took Little G and Django on a trek this morning, looking for signs of Spring in the hood.

This is the first sign that we saw, and right on our doorstep too...

The pogo stick! - that Gwen had been jumping on, not 12 hours earlier

The pile of snow that is no longer a pile

And the shovel, actually visible and not buried beneath 6 feet of the white sh$t

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Ahhhh.... Spring's sweet and gentle beauty.

Do not despair, friends.  I sense your disappointment.  There are more signs to come...

We had to look hard to find this.

In fact, Gwen needed to remove dead leaves and twiggy bits to see that the earth was indeed returning to its glorious, green state.  Those tiny, yellowish shoots are Winter Aconite / Eranthis, which will be out in full glory in a few weeks:

image from marianilandscape.com 

I can't wait to see it.

A block or so down the street, on the North side, we spied some spring bulbs:

And then, THIS!

Galanthus nivalis, also known as the Common snowdrop.  I love you, tough little flower.

All of these signs of spring make me deliriously happy!

This is for my Dad, who also adored Spring and loved to recite this ridiculous verse even more:

Spring has sprung,

The grass has ris.

I wonder where de boidies is?
They say de boid is on the wing
but that's absoid
becuz the wing is on de boid.

~~~

On Saturday, I saw a sign at Tuckey's telling me to "start Spring seeds now!"  I thought about this.  I had been holding onto some heirloom tomato seeds that I had harvested two years ago.  I had green zebras, beefsteak and something purple (a purple tomato!).

We didn't have a garden last year, because our yard was in a state of total destruction.  Could you garden in this?  And it actually looks pretty good here.  You wouldn't believe the mud.

All that mud was definitely worth it:

Anyhow, now that we have a proper yard again, I am ready to start a new garden.   Santa had brought us a seed sowing kit and we dug it out of the basement.

The boxed pods are flat and dry but adding a little water puffs them up a lot and readies them for the seeds.  Compare the pods on the lower left to those on the far right.  See the difference?

Here are two packages of seeds that I purchased at the Western Fair Market.  These both need to be sown directly into the ground after the snow has melted; however, there are plenty of seeds that can be started indoors, like the ones further down the page.

I hate beets.  Please, someone show me a way of preparing them that doesn't make me shudder.

Gwen made cute labels for our pods using stickers and toothpicks.  I love that she wrote "basilica" for basil and the little heart on the cuke label.  It seems that all of our tomatz will be known as "tomatoes" this year.  Oh-oh. So much for my fancy heirloom names.

And here is our Jiffy greenhouse in its resting place, lid on and seeds ready to germinate.  

It has been 48 hours since the kids planted the seeds; there are no signs of life yet.  I will keep you posted.

***

Spring isn't just for sowing; it's for sewing too.  I'll take any opportunity to show off my latest quilting project.  This is fresh off the Kenmore, and I am loving it:

Look at all that juicy colour!  Check out the texture in the quilting!  I want to eat it!

My quilt was inspired by this:  

Unfortunately, I have no idea who made it, which serves me right for ripping jpg's off the internet.

Here are two more pics of quilt porn.  One of the quilt on the wall and one of it bundled up with my ADORABLE bird scissors on top.  Geeking out here.

Okay, you can get on with your day now, but for those of you in the mood for a musical interlude, here's some Cat Stevens.  I have selected Morning Has Broken, which I love a lot.