Welcome!!!

I opened my eyes, crawled out of bed to....sunshine! Yes, another sunny morning, so I then ran to my garden in search of...YES! there they were, perfect little buds popping out through the melting snow, dirt and gravel. The pure, simple bliss of seeing the beginning of the flowers that will spring from the bulbs I planted last fall. It's quite amazing how it just made the rest of my day so.... lovely. Yes, that's the word for it. Lovely. And honestly, now I can begin to plan my veggie and cutting gardens... because to do it earlier than now, makes me impatient, but NOW, well now there is real promise of the spring to come.

I'm looking forward to my garden this year, having learned so much last summer and fall. Like the fact that rabbits love broccoli and cauliflower, and that we have alot of rabbits back there. And that no matter what, I have no luck with carrots (we'll save those for purchasing at the farmers market). But I do very well with zucchini, squash, gourds, lettuce, peas and tomatoes. I will save the majority of the herbs for the deck pots, and though pumpkins are fun, they take ALOT of room. And though I probably won't eat what I grow, i will still grow corn because I like the sound of the wind in it. Reminds me of home - Chatham had a lot of corn.

I also will probably chop off all the quince in the tree before the fall because I don't know what to do with them and they are heavy and ruin the stuff growing under them. I'm also thinking about replacing the peach trees we chopped down 2 years ago, and having also lost our apple orchard to the fence, maybe one of those in place of the plethora of plum trees we have (esp. since we don't really like plums). I also loved my tiny cutting garden at the end of the plot (this is just rows of flowers that you grow with the intention of cutting for bouquets) - mostly because I don't like cutting the ones in my front gardens for this as they look too thin otherwise.

As mentioned, the hydro company has put a fence in back there, (though we are not happy to lose the extra running space) - now it will be that much easier to keep track of the boys when I'm out there. We also lost our neighbours giant raspberry patch to the fence which saddens me because we picked bags and bags worth of them and froze them, and i will miss that. However, now I can focus the time spent there onto tending my own patch.

I'm quite ready for spring and summer and all the surprises and growth that these seasons hold for me and my little family...I love cozy falls and winters - they really are my fav, but this year, this year I'm welcoming spring with all my heart.