Tulips:
Peas:
Lettuce:
and baby feet:
What’s going on in your gardens this spring (or autumn, for my Aussie friend!)?
gardening
of things domestic
Yes, I know this is a writing blog, but you really are not all that interested in my revision angst or my sullen moping about what an untalented hack I am.
Instead I give you:
Bread! Since we got back from Florida I’ve baked bread three times. We haven’t had to buy a single preservatives-stuffed loaf from the grocery store. Hooray!
Chocolate cake! I haven’t made a chocolate cake from scratch so long, I’d almost forgotten the primary purpose of cake pans is not to heat frozen convenience foods in. This was a double layer chocolate cake with homemade frosting. Mmmm.
Also continuing with the yummy food trend, I made those chocolate chip scones twice and crepes with strawberries and maple syrup for lunch one day.
Gardening! The kids and I walked down to town and bought sugar snap peas, bush green beans, lettuce mix, carrots, tomatoes and (due entirely to the persistence of Sir I.) pumpkins. I planted four rows of peas, two squares of lettuce and one square of carrots. I have never had luck with carrots, so this is one of those hopeless long shot sort of things. I also started digging up a place for the pumpkins. I found a cool tool that tells me what to plant when, hopefully cutting down on my Indifferent Gardener tendency to kill my plants.
On the other hand, my house looks like three hurricanes have torn through it—make that two hurricanes and one slowly-creeping glacier since the baby is just scooching, not crawling. I’m behind on laundry and every flat surface (including, darnit, the poor piano) is buried under a blizzard of paper.
What cosy domestic activities have you been up to?
spring
A week ago, I cleared off last year’s leaves and assorted debris from my garden beds and discovered, to my delighted surprise, tulips!:
Now, granted, these are not surprise plants. I made a bed and planted the bulbs (with the aid of enthusiastic children) last fall. But they still feel like a gift to me. The labor to plant them is long-forgotten, the winter has been long and the snow deep, and it’s hard to believe that after sleeping under that white coverlet for so many months, they would uncurl and stretch up towards the sun. Yet here they are.
Funny how so much gestation and growth happens in the dark, in the hidden places, in the dry times where nothing seems to be happening. Then, look, here is spring and all those small sleepy things have become green growing things.
Sorta like stories.
How are all your gardens doing?