Spring has Sprung!

And the grass has riz... or at least, the weeds have. Of course.

The daffodils are blooming...

And so is the apricot. The bees are very happy about this, as evidenced by the little chappy in the photo, and so am I... except that this is an "on" year for the apricot and I am wondering if I'm going to go crazy trying to process all the fruit as I usually do.

Last weekend I planted peas, carrots, dill, spinach, lettuce, mesclun and rocket outside. We had quite a bit of rain this week (yay!) and a few frosts (uh-oh!). I'm hoping the soil is warm enough that a few frosty mornings won't kill my seeds. Having said that, seeds are cheap so I think it's worth the gamble. I'm particularly excited about the carrots. I've never actually grown them before, and I got a heirloom variety that I can save some seeds from if all goes according to plan.

I also heard about a weed killing method that seems to be working quite well... our trusty old friend vinegar! You just pour it on the weeds and they start dying within the day (as long as it doesn't rain). It seems to be doing quite the job on the dandelions, but I think it will take more than one application. It will kill lawn and other plants, too, so one has to be judicious in the application, but I suspect I will be keeping Heinz vinegar in production this year!

Incidentally, I don't know about Australia, but over here the cheap vinegar is actually made from a petroleum by-product. Aaaaaarrrrrggghhh! Just what we need - more stupid uses for fossil fuels. That's why I use Heinz - it's made from corn. Now of course there's a whole debate about corn, but I think it still rates better than petroleum.

I used to work with a woman who said one of the joys of spring for her was making a salad out of the new dandelion leaves. I thought I might try one before I set about killing them, just in case they really are one of the joys of spring. It's not something I would recommend. Ours are so bitter they make one's tongue want to strangle one for being so stupid. I think I'll stick with rocket.

We have blue skies and (almost) warm weather today. Methinks a barbecue might be the go for dinner.

Cheers!

So Much for Spring?

Well, after all my excitement about planting peas and and sunshine, here's what greeted us on Saturday...

Eighteen centimetres of snow in the foothills! We got about three or four centimetres in the valley. Fortunately it had pretty much melted on the valley floor by noon and today (Tuesday), I spent a good hour or so outside digging in the dirt. Yay! Now that we have switched to daylight savings hours it doesn't get dark until after 8pm, so I get to play outside.

I am thrilled beyond belief with the amount of earthworms I have - I was digging up spadesfull of them! This also means that I have murdered a few... glad to get that out of the way. The first murder is always unpleasant.

I'm almost (but not quite) hoping for a late hard frost to knock the blossom off my apricot tree so it isn't quite so prolific, but I think I'd rather this glorious weather continue. Perhaps I should just have a chat with the neighbourhood squirrels and birds to let them know they're welcome to as many apricots as they can get their furry little paws and busy beaks around.

In the meantime, I have bulbs popping up all over, the crocus are in full bloom, and my johnny jump-ups have their first flowers. Spring is definitely one of the joys of living in this part of the world.

And, all things being equal, I will FINALLY get to plant my peas this week.... once I've dug all the onion grass out of my raised beds.

How Do You Know Spring Is Nearly Here?

1. You start leaning towards the light like a house plant.

2. On the first day that it is sunny and warm enough to open a window or two, you find that there are about fifteen cats in every window. This is in spite of the fact that there are only two cats living with you.

3. You make your weekly batch of soup for lunches the next week, and the recipe does not involve pearl barley.

4. The seeds you ordered arrive...

5. ...you plant them (albeit indoors and under lights), and they sprout! This is always miraculous.

6. Your daffodils start getting themselves organised.

7. You read that the best time to plant peas is when the lilac buds are as big as a mouse's ear. You check the lilacs at your office, and the buds are as big as a mouse's ear! You make plans for Sunday, and a mental note to buy a lilac bush.

8. Your crocuses bloom! This is a very definite sign that spring is almost here.

9. You decide "Bugger housework, I'm going outside to get dirty!". Oh, wait, that actually isn't a seasonal thing for me, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

10. You seriously consider trading in the telly for a clothesline.

11. Life is good.

Special Scarves

In 2009 Idaho hosted the Special Olympics, and as part of their efforts the organizing committee asked for volunteers to knit or crochet enough blue and white scarves so that every participant could have one. The idea was so popular and so successful that the Idaho folks decided to do the same for this year's Idaho Special Winter Games. I heard about it through the Crafty Folks Underground Network (that's not really what it is, it's a word of mouth thing, but it amuses me to think there's a network of subversive crocheters and knitters out there).

Since I had finished a project and I like to have something to keep out of trouble on these still chilly evenings, I decided to participate. We were given a wool brand, colours, and dimensions, but other than that it was up to us whether we crocheted or knitted and what pattern we did.

Here's what I came up with:

I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and it was fun to do, too. I got the patterns from here: http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/scarves.php. They have all sorts of links to all sorts of scarves. I fiddled with the patterns a bit, of course. There are a lot of nifty ideas out there. I never knew that you could do a ribbed pattern using crochet, although it seems fabulously obvious now. It chews up the wool, though!

The scarves are now sitting in the kitchen sink soaking, and I will drop them off as soon as they're dry.

Oh, I forgot to mention that our friend Karen was the mascot for the 2009 Special Olympics. Here she is in all her Olympic glory: