A Lion And Some Chickens

The golden, warm weather of yesterday's January thaw has gone and now we're having a wild blustery day up here on the hilltop. Lots of reading, lots of sorting through the seed bin, lots of dreaming about chickens (we're getting some!) and a little plotting about new bees (our hive bit the dust). Its a homestead dream day. I have been researching chicken coops and planting dates and talking to beekeepers on the phone about what I might have done wrong. After I push "Publish" on this post I'm off to the upstairs to rummage around in my homesteading book department and fuel the dream. This weekend I am hoping to put up a hoop house or two over some of our raised beds to get some early cold weather veggies started.

While I dreamed and researched and scribbled notes the boys have been having a playdough, graphic novel and drawing, drawing, drawing kind of day. Lots of interesting masterpieces making appearances. I am kind of smitten with this lion Ru created. I love his cheerful face, his humpy back, his tassely feet and his brush-bottle tail.

Poetry Friday: A Botany Poem

I have been soaking in Amy Merrick's stunning blog An Apple A Day whenever I get a spare minute. Between that, spring being present and spring cleaning addling my brain a bit my thoughts have become quite blossom-soaked. Why fight it? Spring wants to be center-stage...so let her.

Flowers on Dancing Woman (Photo credit: TheArches)

My poem today is all about this very favorite season of mine...and maybe explains a bit of the madness we all feel suddenly at this time of year. May she ever shake her blossomy mane on my street....

Sunlit leaves in spring with and without backlight (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Once A Sensualist Dame...

Spring is doing her passionate tarentella
All down our block and the next one too
Pursing her bold red tulips and fiercely
Kicking up chartruese, grassy spears.
She shakes her tinkling forsythia mane
And drops rings of daffodil at every door.
She lays herself a rosy, blossom rug on
The corner under the lush magnolia tree.
Where she blows a flirty kiss of pear petal
Confetti after every oblivious, passing car.
She winks a forget-me-not eye in each yard,
Reaches her long, leaf-tipped limbs skyward
And performs a saucy, hosta-fringed hip-roll
That always leaves my old house open-doored
Lolling dusty rugs from every window.

Wall painting from Stabiae: Flora with the cornucopia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You can find the other Poetry Friday participants contributions over at Book Talk, today's host blog. Feel free to chip in with your own additions too! Participation is open to all....just link up and join the throng.

Tiny Bouquet

I have been thinking Lenten thoughts, going over ways to add penance, giving and prayer to my life in more ways and one of the ways I've been working on is a silent walking time first thing in the morning. Time to pray, listen, be still, hear and just generally not be online or on my phone or carrying on two or three conversations at once with the boys. I've been enjoying it a lot and am starting to wind my walk down with a little poking around type browse around my own yard to see where spring is showing up and what little touches of new life I see. This week, I saw that my Lenten Rose is blooming! It was just an unlabeled, cheap grocery store potted variety that I put in the ground after it finished blooming for me indoors last year.

I so hoped it would take, a Lenten Rose has been on my gardeny wishlist for a long time and lucky, lucky me...I got one for a pittance at my local grocery! I think I bought a mixed pot of several different cream, pink and burgundy shades and it looks like only the dark wine color has managed to set itself firmly into the soil. Still amazing to me that even when we are getting temperatures in the 30's and sometimes even 20's this brave little flower does its thing, undeterred. I have noticed that there are still several upcoming buds so I took to liberty of bringing one indoors to enjoy in a bottle. What a treat to have a small bouquet from my own garden in February!

Related articles

• Lenten Journey (terri0729.wordpress.com)
• Hella-What?????? (thegardendiaries.wordpress.com)
• Lenten Practice (nationalavenuecc.com)

Garden Dreams

Its a garden-dreaming day. My brain is on floral track, no question. This morning we woke up to another confectioner's sugar forecast come true. Still, crispy morning weather with silently sifting snow and everything soft-serve coated. Hard to believe that by next month we'll probably be out, digging up the garden and putting in the peas. (Note to self: must get some bags of compost and manure for the raised bed!)

This morning I went to my painting group even though I knew that there was a good chance that there wouldn't be a terribly large crowd. Sure enough, I was the only one  there with my brushes...but, no matter. I had a peaceful, quiet morning dipping into my box of watercolors and Dee played happily at my feet with a plastic dinosaur (Ru was off at a friend's house) and I painted away. It felt good to be back, even if I did miss the company. As I told the church secretary who ducked in to wave hello, it doesn't matter a whole lot that the other painters weren't around...I was there to make sure that I didn't stop painting. After two weeks off, I'm nervous to let myself slide anymore. I know how hard it is to get into a good habit and I am loathe to let it slip away now.

 

This morning I painted Ru as a baby, sleeping in his moses basket in the backyard where he napped often while I gardened. I used to prop an umbrella over him while he slept all the time.

Its a scene I've been imagining painting for a long time so, it felt really actualizing and inspiring to get it out of my head and onto paper.

There are a few other things besides the weather that are feeding my floral mindset. First, I've got all kinds of things blooming inside right now. A spoiled me on Valentine's Day with a couple pots of forced bulbs because he knows how much I love them. And a few of my own houseplants were blooming on their own to boot!

Secondly, the garden catalogs have arrived, with a vengeance.  There is nothing like a nice stack of slick catalogs to set me dreaming. It does make it inconveniently awkward that we have no idea when/if we'll be moving in relationship to spring planting. I have a feeling its going to be a bit of a manic rush, however it falls out. Good thing I never claimed to be organized and like spontaneous, cluttered, jumbly cottage gardens. Here are the plants that are making me weak-kneed at the moment:

Crinkly, Romantic Poppies
Old Fashioned, Scented Lilies
Bugloss (horrible name, no?)
Pocket Book Flowers
More Exotic Fuscias
Nodding Blue Lily
Lush, Purple, Double Clematis
Poofy, White Cosmos
 Glowing Bleeding Hearts
 Dramatic African Daisies
Bloodred Geraniums, Masquerading as Roses 
Sweet Heliotrope 
Butter and Honey Lantana 


And yeah....that's the short list. *sigh* Dreams have a way of mounding up higher and higher. I believe, like whipped cream...you can't really overdo it.

And then, California travel plans  for April aren't really grounding me either. It'll be high spring there....and I'm jotting things down madly in my notes like:

 *World's largest wisteria...Sierra Madre *Check out the Antelope Poppy Preserve *Wildflowers on Gorman Post Rd. *Visit the flower fields at Carlsbad Ranch *See Moreton Bay Fig Tree in Balboa Park *REDWOODS!!! *

Hee hee. Good times.