"She refused to be bored, chiefly because she wasn't boring." Zelda Fitzgerald

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Dee, Just Now

Taking a little time out tonight to cover the next installment of my kid portraits. Dee is newly four him, cleanly out of toddler-hood and into his boyhood years. It's lots of fun to watch him unfolding and see who he is turning out to be. He's a super different person from his big brother, Ru but they get along well and are fast friends too.

 Dee Likes:
  • The color yellow. (His preference hasn't faded...even though I thought it might. He was super excited recently when I bought him some new shirts that were yellow.)
  • Playing outdoors. He can amuse himself, literally for hours with any little investigation. Insects are a big draw at the moment. He kept busy watching a pillbug forEVER the other day. Gardening mommies don't mind. :)
  • Ice cream. He and A have been making the rounds on their own little private ice cream tasting tours, testing all the local spots, its one of his favorite past-times.
  • Girls. At his recent birthday party he carefully requested a select crowd of female chums and was beaming at having all of them there to play with together. He tells me often that he likes little girls more than little boys and that he hopes the baby is a sister for him.
  • Babies. He loves to talk about our baby-on-the-way and makes a bee-line for a snuggly spot near infants in our crowd of friends.
  • Signs. Maybe its watching his big brother learning to read that has created this latest interest, I'm not really sure. Everywhere we go he wants to have us tell him what this sign and that sign and this other sign says. Lots of deciphering work going on.
  • Machines of all kinds. His dream vocation changes pretty frequently but right now its always some kind big equipment operator: bus driver, crane operator, train conductor, garbage truck guy...etc.
 Dee Can't Stand:
  • Being awakened. In the last year or so I finally realized that he really hates having someone wake him up and will start the day on a much happier note if he is left alone to wake up. This kid needs personal space. 
  • Wearing socks. I'm forever catching him slyly slipping his shoes on without his socks and tucking the socks into some hiding spot around the house. He also hates to use his hands to put his shoes on and thus crams the tongues down inside the shoe with his little bare toes.
  • Sudden surprises. Unless he grows out of it over time (entirely possible) he will be one of those grouchy people who get angry about practical jokes and insist that surprises are just an evil kind of exclusive-ism. He really gets steamed when Ru pops out from behind a wall and hollers, "Boo!"
  • Strangers helping him find his parents. He's a detail-man so when we're out and about, it's easy for him to get distracted by some little interesting thing and lose track of us and get disoriented. Inevitably we'll notice and call his name when we notice him looking wildly around him and some helpful, passerby will stop to point us out and offer words of comfort...and he flips! Some trigger in him is really hit by strangers talking to him and offering help. He acts like they brandished a knife. Guess we don't have to worry about this one every being lured into a stranger's car with candy, eh?




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Monday, March 26, 2012

The Way His Hair Curls


I love the way Ru's hair curls in the back on a slightly moist morning when I've let it go just a while extra between cuts. Happy, swirly effects of humidity returning.  He got it from me. When we have a misty rain and I can't help gardening in it, I come in with ringlets around my face...my favorite.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Radish Babies

We have teeny, tiny radish babies...the first of our homegrown veggies to step toes out of the soil.
Or maybe just wee green faces...not so much big pink toes yet.

Is there anything better than that first zippy shot of new-seedling-chartreuse?
 Here we are on the 21st day of March and we have all kinds of veggies in our beds: bok choi, kale, lettuces, peas, carrots and our dear radish seedlings. Some of them are six pack veggies that I couldn't resist at the nursery and some are hidden seeds, waiting under the soil for enough rain or warm to sploing up. The radishes win the race!
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Bathroom Saga, Part Three

Oh man....time gets away. Here I am, finally...sharing what I hoped would be the third and final chapter of the story about the bathroom walls but which looks like it will actually be Bathroom Saga Chapter Three of....four? I hope just four. It will all eventually end. I believe in it.

One time I ripped down all that strange, vinyl wallpaper with the blue faux wood pattern and was left in the world of caked on old glue. Then I got inspired in this post and kismet happened and I found the-most-fabulous-wallpaper-glue-removing-spray-in-the-world. (Everyone who has old wallpaper to remove, run, don't walk to that link and order some from Amazon immediately! Chomp rocks and I'm not even sort of being paid to say that.)

So then, A pitched in and we sprayed and scraped and scraped and sprayed and swept up glue bits off the floor and washed it off our feet and daubed it off of various children and then one day we finished!Woohoo!!!There actually was a finite amount of glue on the wall and it didn't and couldn't go on forever. Hooray! After all the scraping and stripping and what-not there was a little spackle work to do and then some light sanding to wrap the whole thing up.
Tah Dah!!!!Naked walls!!!!
So very, very clean...except for a little random white paint at the top...odd, eh?
And so now the walls stand naked before us! Naked, boring walls never looked so good. Such a relief. So, now we have a manic, crazy week ahead of us and we won't get a chance to slap the two or three coats of soft tealy blue on the walls that I have all ready and waiting in a can. But I feel it...we're close.
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Monday, March 19, 2012

A Scepter From The Marsh

I think this is a variation on King of the Mountain done with phragmites in spring instead of snow piles in winter.
Nothing quite as fulfilling as plucking yourself the world's tallest stalk of grass and marching around the yard with it. Love the big, fat grin on my middle boy's face from earlier today. Such great triumph over a "little thing."
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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Golden, Garden Days

This is life at our house lately.
 We're planting and weeding and raking and planting and trimming and watering and planting. The highbush blueberries are in, the lily bulbs are in, the ornamental shrubs arrived this evening and our planters by the doors are full of pansies and daffodils and grape hyacinth, all starting to bloom beautifully.


 It's dirty fingernails from here on our for the whole gang! Nothing for it but to jump in with both feet and a trowel. Lots of gardening to do before the third trimester finishes up as we take our leisure on the lawn with Baby lolling about on a blanket.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Can't Get Enough Benedictus!

A couple of times a week I am in the car driving and the boys are listening to endless loops of Little House on the Prairie on cd and I feel like the chauffeur. This is when I put in my headphones and push play on my iPhone's Divine Office app. I know this sounds totally canned but it's true. I drive down the highway and listen to/pray through morning prayer complete with cathedral bell sounds and a meditation chime at the appropriate spots, sometimes even a little chant for my listening pleasure. For those who don't know, this is an ancient Catholic ritual something like the Muslim's morning call to prayer a cyclical, rhythmic spiritual pattern. It calms me, it makes me feel less used and lonely and it gives me a tiny spot of reflection and peace and on the highway no less!



My favorite part lately that I can't seem to get out of my head comes at the very end, it's called The Benedictus, the final blessing, the part that really reverberates for me is this last stanza:
English: Sunrise.
Image via Wikipedia
"In the tender compassion of our God,  the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace."


Muslim prayer beads
Image via Wikipedia
Isn't that gorgeous? I may have to paint it on a canvas or inscribe it on one of the walls in our house.  I think only way it would be better is if it was prayed over me as the sun rose, in the door of a candlelit cathedral or on a cliff over the sea.
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Monday, March 12, 2012

Minty Dreams

Fresh mint
Fresh mint (Photo credit: kali.ma)
Been out planting today for the first time. Put in carrot, radish and lettuce seeds since the pea seeds haven't arrived yet (come on Mr. Postman) Planting makes me think about fresh herb season. I am hoping to get a little herb area all neatly squared away this year, including even the more boisterous and potentially invasive folks. Mint for instance. Growing up I wasn't sure what to do with mint...short of drying it for tea. Now I use it for all kinds of things. I chop it and cook with it for Mediterranean flavor when I am feeling a little Greek, I add it to water bottles, I snip it over ice cream, I put it into yogurt with nuts and honey and I throw it in salads for a little wake up pep. Its a great herb. One thing I've never tried is the recipe suggested by Marta and Krysia on their blog, "What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today. Please click over if you want to see the most delicious mug of cocoa ever made. Wow. Slobber.

The idea of fresh mint in cocoa makes me think of one of my favorite candies, After Eight mints. I never buy them, except to put on the pillows of guests (when I think of it) but they feel like decadent little treats that are just a wonderful use of sugar to me. Think the the York Peppermint Patty gone upscale and delicate. I realize the idea of hot chocolate with fresh mint sounds oxymoronic since we're talking summertime but why can't I make iced chocolate like we do with coffee? Or for that matter, iced mint coffee? Yum!

Am also very interested in making up a recipe of this minty hair rinse. I've been thinking for a long time that I'd like to whip up a vinegar based rinse because of all the good things I've read it can do for your locks. Mint in the summer shower plus an excuse to try a shine enhancing rinse sounds like the perfect plan to me.

Check out this minty top from River of Romansk's  swoony Etsy shop and then this  sweet little dress from Modcloth in soft, shades of green. Either would be the perfect pregnant but still pretty Easter outfit for a mommy, topped off  with a pair of chocolate brown leggings and some little ballet flats. *sigh* 

Maybe this summer we'll even finally get around to making our own mint ice cream from scratch. There's always hope that the mint patch will get a little out of control and need a firm hand which brings in sheaves of bright smelling leaves, that's the sort of problem I can deal with.


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Friday, March 9, 2012

Poetry Friday: A Personal Collage

Happy Poetry Friday to you all! Today's poem is a little more free-style than my usual route. I'm feeling fast and loose and also looking to shake it up, it's good for the brain to try things that are different and unfamiliar. (On that note, if you're looking to grow your brain, lose and old habit or pick up a good one....check out this fascinating show from my local NPR station about that topic. Super interesting stuff!) Change is good.

I'm sort of letting my mind go a bit and stream-of-consciousness embroidering here with words about what composes my person. It's a little less concrete, sometimes a little obscure but kind of fun. Less story, more mental collage. Kind of like playing darts with my own brain.
Brain
Image via Wikipedia


I am the Following

I am a creator of beauty and a pursuer of growth.
I wonder why numbers slip through my memory like silt.
I hear the sticky murmur of yeast rising in bread dough.
I see the clicking shift from grey to pink light in summer.
I want a gold canary to keep me kitchen company.
I am a creator of beauty and a pursuer of growth.

I pretend that my motherhood shift will end at 5 PM.
I feel hungry every morning before I open my eyes.
I touch the faces pressed dully against city bus windows.
I worry about hypocrisy and the way it wrinkles souls.
I cry when my sons are raw in the crook of my neck.
I am a creator of beauty and a pursuer of growth.

I understand that God is love and all love is God.
I say "might as well leave well enough alone."
I dream about flying smoothly, my legs folded in lotus pose.
I try to get up early even if I feel like ignoring the world
I hope for a better garden every year, watered and lush.
I am a creator of beauty and a pursuer of growth.

Please stop by at A Gathering of Books for all the rounded up contributors to today's Poetry Friday. All kinds of good stuff to soak up if you're looking for inspiration.

Hope your weekend is sublime!
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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Salad Proficiency

There is the feel of spring in the air. It's warm! Hooray time for salad! Every time I step out the door some green shoot is taller or more visible or sporting buds. Pretty soon I'll be mulling over which greens to pop into our collection of raised beds.

This week when I made my little sojourn to the library and stood musing in front of the home decorating/ gardening/cooking shelf on the New Arrivals bookcase, I saw Patricia Wells' book, Salad As A Meal. I snapped it up. Soup and salad have been my major handicaps as a cook for years and so I still jump at solutions or advice in those categories. Even though the author on the cover looks a bit nervous, the recipes inside are wonderful! I can't wait to try them all out. Here's a sneak peek:
  • Chicken Salad W/ Green Beans Tahini Lemon Dressing and Cilantro
  • Lime and Lemongrass Cured Beef Salad
  • Potato Salad W/ Capers, Spring Onions and Mint
  • Crab, Avocado and Quinoa Salad W/ Technicolor Tomatoes
  • Canteloupe, Tomato, Goat Cheese, Cucumber Salad
  • Fig, Sheep Cheese, Pomegranate, Arugula and Kumquat Salad
I could go on and on. Apparently Ms. Wells is a fairly lauded authoress and quite well known in the food world. She won a James Beard Award (the highest cookbook honor) for her 1996 tome Patricia Wells, At Home In Provence. Maybe I have more reading to do.

 I thought I'd share one of the two salads I can turn out with great ease. This dish make me feel like a summer queen. It is simple: spinach, berries (all kinds work, I always try to work in two colors: blackberries and strawberries, raspberries and blueberries...etc.), crumbles of goat cheese and dressing. I'm not sure who thought this one up but it wasn't me...someone somewhere invented it and it's all over the place. I used to always make this with a sugar loaded poppy seed dressing which is lip-smackingly delicious but really only got use in our house for this single recipe and contained a truckload of sweetener to boot. (No wonder it tasted so great!) I stopped buying the dressing and making this salad for a while which felt sad.

Then I ran across this magical bottle of balsamic reduction and bought it for use in sauces and such and one day I had a desperate yen for my salad and tried the reduction instead of the old bottled dressing of yore. It was divine. There's no added sugar in balsamic vinegar, nothing in fact except for vinegar but it gives a wonderful sweet flavor with the hit of tang the dish needs. I'm home free! I love solutions.
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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Ru, Here and Now

 Time to stop for a minute and think about this oldest boy of mine. What is he made of at the moment? Snips and snails and puppy dog tails undoubtedly but there are always a few unique ingredients if I take the time to pause and notice. Here's the rundown:

Ru Loves:
  • Dogs and calves. Dogs have always been his heart animal (and interestingly his Chinese birth year animal too) but lately he's been open mouthed and willingly slobbered on for any calf he sees in addition to all canines that happen by. I think the calf attraction comes from reading a lot of Farmer Boy and hearing so much about Almonzo's yearing to have a team of calves of his own to train. 
  • Stories of all kinds. I have yet to outlast his attention span...EVER, while reading to him from books. He frequently and eagerly requests rote, oral storytelling too and never wants them to stop. He will sit with books for hours on end, flipping through them and imagining the plots and we have several multi-cd books on disc that he listens and listens and listens too....every naptime, every nighttime, and most mornings if we end up in the car. Mommy eventually had to plea bargain for afternoons to be Mommy audio material time when driving. Pretty cool problem. The boy has ink in his veins. I like it.
  • Graphic novels. His particular passions involve the trio of Tin-Tin, Asterix and Obelix and Calvin and Hobbes although he'll dip into Star Wars, Zita the Space-girl or Garfield on a whim too. He heads right for the comic book shelf in the library and spends all his time there every week.
  • Playing outdoors. He is out every single day, no matter what the weather. He does all kinds of stuff...messing around with sticks, digging, lying on the lawn watching the sky, climbing the apple tree...etc. He loves to be out and he has no trouble making up his own fun. Makes a mama proud. :)
  • Avocados w/ lime juice and salt. He and I are the house avocado lovers. Anytime he sees me preparing the slice one open he plea bargains for half of it. I don't mind sharing though since it makes me so happy to have him share my love the divine "alligator pear." We sometimes snuggle up together and split one for a snack, half a lime for each of us and a few cranks of the sea salt grinder and then we eat them with matching demitasse spoons, right out of the shells. Mmmmm.....
  • Video game arcades. A has been taking the boys out for a special one-on-one Daddy Outing in rotation and Ru almost always wants to go to the huge video arcade a few towns over. He calls it his "most secret, favoritist place" and claims to be withholding it's identity and location from the rest of the family, lest we all discover the deep happiness to be found there. He pronounces it "art cave" which makes me want to giggle every time.
  • Lemonade. Whenever he's allowed a special drink for a treat at the store or a restaurant he always asks for lemonade. It used to always be orange juice but I think the tide may be turning. I foresee a sidewalk stand in our future one of these days.
  • The t.v. show How It's Made. He's obsessed! I'd never heard of this show until we accidentally bumped into it on Netflix on a whim but boy do I hear about it now. I hear it is a cable show from The Science Channel, basically the premise is that they take you into factories or wherever an object originates from and show you the nuts and bolts of how it is created. We've seen: snowboards, guitars, pencils, Cheerios, paintballs, kayaks and lots more, and I don't think this trend is going to be over anytime too soon. We've still got several episodes left. Love to watch his curiosity and hear him re-telling all the details to A over the dinner table later that night.
  • Scaring people. He has discovered the fabulous comic effect and power-tinged elements of the startle reflex. He's far too good at scaring his little brothers who are frankly a big jittery around him now and far too bad at scaring his father and I who always give him bland reactions. This interest hits the nexus of two of his favorite topics at the moment: joking and power. Interesting to watch him struggle to understand and agreeably execute the old "Boo!" trick.
  • Opening the car doors. A has started letting Ru have the car keys to go open up the doors on mornings when we're all trying to rush out of the house together. He feels like a million bucks to have his daddy's big jangly key chain and the responsibility of herding his two younger brothers into their seats.
 Ru Hates:
  • Soup. Once in a fit of sobbing angst he told me that I was terribly mean because I always pick on him by doing horrible things like always making soup for dinner. Poor A (a real soup lover) had a good laugh over that one, I haven't actually quit making soup all together but knowing that it will be completely boycotted by the younger set has taken my output down a bit. Ru won't touch the stuff beyond the obligatory mouthful which goes down with much shuddering, no matter the ingredients. 
  • Tension in movies. He calls it "scary movies" but the term misleads most people...we're not talking bad guys with guns and masks...he just means scenes of any tension or danger or stress or worry or fear. He can't handle it. It's fine in books, but these kinds of feelings in movies are too potent for him. I thought this was just a little kid thing until Dee grew past him in his tolerance level. We'll frequently notice now that Ru will leave the room in a dead panic and refuse the rest of a movie Dee is happily watching with no issues whatsoever. It's just the way this boy is wired. Tension gets to him.
  • Going to sleep. Still not a fan of naps or actually bedding down at night. He likes to keep himself awake as long as possible...and in the morning he's nigh unto impossible to rouse. Groggy to the core. Silly little mouse. Once he's down he sleeps hard and long and doesn't rouse at all but man, he sure does fight it.
  • Girls. We've reached the legendary stage when girls are icky. Although, to be fair...when coaxed a bit he will admit that he's not so much repulsed by them as interested and hurt when they giggle and run away or tease him. He really means he can't figure girls out. He insists that if the baby is a girl there will be hell to pay. Yesterday at lunch I floated the idea that maybe a sister would be good, "She could tell girls to be nice to you and help you understand them. And even if no other girls would be your friend, she would, right?" He seemed pretty into that idea. Again, Dee is so different here. 
  • Waiting for things. He really hates postponements and having people put him off or make him wait. Patience is not his strong suite. He is a bit prone to pestering, even after he's been told yes if the desired outcome doesn't happen fast enough. Trying to work on teaching him a bit about respect and patience and delayed gratification. Big lessons.
  • Taking his vitamins. He has all chewable, candy tasting vitamins and he says he likes the flavors, but every single morning I have to watch him to be sure he actually eats what I hand out instead of palming them into his pants or dropping them on the floor or shuttling them to the kitchen on his dirty plate. Still not sure what that's all about.

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Kitchen Towels Aplenty

All my kitchen towels are starting to wear out. Little holes are widening on the margins and frayed edges appearing on the hems and I admit there are even a few with burned bits from near musses with kitchen burners. Time to dust off my collection and upgrade by hanging a few brand spanking new linens. I have been thinking about buying some plain linen toweling and making my own or buying a bale them at Target (maybe these ones?), and then I read this post on the fabulous blog A Number Of Things. Gah! Am now drooling over many different options at Spoonflower's little shop. So many beautiful linen options. I am rather in deep like with the following designs:

EAT WELL Towel


Can't quite see the whole thing in this shot but I love all the graphic representation and bright styling on this one. The colors are great. And "Eat Well" has to be one of the best captions for a produce item beauty pagent ever. Yes, please...more veggies!

The illustrations on this one are cool, and even better...a way to support a young entrepreneur. The 14 year old daughter, Anna of the blogging mama from A Number of Things drew these as part of a little study course on herbology she and her mom dove into. I think these are beautifully done and some of them are very unique choices for "useful" herb representatives. I wanna go look up what honeysuckle is good for. I know now, since this last summer that plantain (common weed in lawns, hooray!) helps bee-stings not to inflate and to heal much more quickly. Simply take the fresh leaves, mash to a pulp (or chew in moments of desperation) and apply the gooey paste to the sting, cover with a bandaid to keep it on the spot for at least a half an hour. I left mine on all day. Major difference in the amount of swelling and reaction.
Butterfly Painting Calendar 2012
Love these bright butterflies too and the fact that I already have some framed butterflies hanging above the kitchen counter makes the theme a little more attractive.
2012 Market Fresh Calendar
Something about the swirlyness of these illustrations really appeals to me. Love those twirling cucumber vine bits and the little bloopy, real life shapes of the tomatoes. And how can I resist a vegetable lineup that begins with asparagus, my ultimate favorite. :)

Now I just have to narrow it down and decide which ones get to come live here.


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Monday, March 5, 2012

A Garden Plot

Photo credit to: http://www.thegardenlady.org/
This morning started out so chill and bland and then as the day tumbled on it got brighter and clearer until there was warm golden sunlight pouring in on the potted fig, leaving cozy puddles of light on the floor. If only we had a cat. But we don't, instead we have me. So, I sat in the sun pools and read books to the boys and vacuumed the rug and then flipped through another sheaf of garden catalogs that came up the steps in the arm of the postman.

Nib, big book lover

Ru, my biggest book hound. Consuming Mr. Popper's Penguins as fast as I will read.

Here are five garden problems I have at the moment
  1.  I need to figure out proper up-keep for a gravel drive. Our gets all weedy every two minutes, and short of weeding it by hand meticulously (which I did do once or twice last year), how do folks really pull it off?
  2. I need a reminder to put in fall veggie crops. I always, always forget. Maybe one of those, send-yourself-an-email-in-the-future things would solve this. Hmmmm.....
  3. I need more chives. They are great for eating, they're completely fuss-free and they're a beautiful landscaping plant and rabbits don't eat them. That said, I can't bear to buy them. Everyone has chives, right? I'll have to get some divisions from someone.
  4. I am looking for some big shallow circular planters to nab. Preferably free! Am keeping an eye out on curbs. I want to stack them up in graduated sizes inside the giant cement planter on the lawn to make a towering kind of fountain effect. Then...I'm going to fill the whole thing with a cascade of strawberry plants.
  5. I have to figure out what can live under yew plants. Last year they looked like they had been plopped down into the sea of wood chips overnight. Very barren. Maybe I just need a few impatiens?


And here are five plants I'm most excited to be planting this year:
  1. A bridalwreath bush. This is a beautiful shrub that has everything but fragrance. It looks like a big frothy white fountain in May or so and is so covered with little white blossoms that you can scarcely see the plant itself at all. When I was a little girl I sighed over this bush and promised myself I'd buy one when I saw it blooming, every spring in forgotten doorways of abandoned homesteads in Northern Michigan. It is one of those steadfast shrubs that outlives occupants with ease. And you have to admit the name is high romance.
  2. Strawberry plants! Hooray! Am so excited to start putting in the small fruits.
  3. A climbing rose. I'm thinking to buy a deeply ruffled, scented yellow variety...the kind that blooms from June till frost. Still not sure if it should live in the back and climb up over the basement door in the stone foundation or in the front to camouflage the electrical wires and box on the the face of the house.
  4. A double mock-orange. This is another old fashioned charmer. A big frothy shrub that blooms all multi-petaled white during the garden's peak. Just trying to figure out where to put this one too. Too many options. I kind of fancy the idea of putting it by the back door where I'll smell it every time we walk in and out. It has a wonderful, sweet smell. I plan to be quite bowled over by it. 
  5. High bush blueberries. I just dug holes and put all five of them in the ground. I know it seems early but the shrubs I ordered came in the mail and they were still dormant so I gave it a go. The ground isn't frozen and so I am hoping for success. Some are going to fill holes in our hedge and some will mix into the perennial border along the front of the house.
And the top five changes I'm making since last season:
  1. I will put something in the giant cement planter in the backyard. It won't be a naked, slightly weedy odd spot in the yard. My plan is: strawberries!
  2. I will mulch thoroughly and often with grass clippings to keep plants from getting weedy or wilty. Have to locate a safe source for bags of discarded, non-treated bits though. Can't just go picking them curbside if you wanna be clean and green. Hmm....still thinking on that.
  3. I will get my garden in early! I was too lax last year and didn't realize that the hawks nesting above our house keep the rabbit population at bay until after midsummer when they're young fledge and suddenly whatever is in the ground and thriving is all there will be. Plants not established or tall will be munched. Not to mention I'm having a baby in June. I have no fall-back plan. I must plant early.
  4. I will keep the decorative planters full of pretty things. I did this once or twice last year but there were some real odd, patchy arrangements at certain times. No reason to let little contained, manageable bits get lost. I can do it!
  5. I'm carving a path through the lawn from the front door to the driveway. Everyone walks that way anyhow so you might as well go with the flow. I'm excited about putting in little stepping stones and dividing my thyme to go in between. Can't have too many pretty winding paths around!

What is on your green little hearts today? Have any solutions to my five conundrums or some exciting planting plans or changes of your own? I'd love to hear the deep, dark dish on all of it. My thumb needs a little fodder this time of year, we can't simply go mad while we wait you know!


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