Sunday, January 19, 2014

Endurance Event


Winter started early this year, and it has been relentless. By this point, I usually can count on both hands the number of times that I've had challenging drives to work. In contrast, this year I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've had an easy commute since December 1st.  

What's been remarkable is not so much the quantity of snow, but how much it has blown around, causing drifting problems on the roads two or three days after it has fallen. This is a reflection of how cold it's been when the snow fell, resulting in dry snow that doesn't stay out.

The good news is that the snow should be doing a nice job of insulating the garden beds, so the plants should come through the winter with little damage. At least that's what we are telling ourselves now!

In the meantime, my gardening thoughts are focused indoors. The white amaryllis has begun to bloom.


Another indoor gardening project is my sprouter. I just got this sprouter from Gardens Alive, and the current crops are a lentil mix and arugula.  The lentils were very easy to work with; the teeny arugula seeds are a different story. The final verdict will be based on the taste. 


And later today I will pull out the seed catalogs and start planning the veggie garden for this spring. Sooner or later, this winter will come to an end!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Something New is Unfolding

The buds on the amaryllis bulb are slowly unfolding, and so is a new beginning for this blog. Like a seed buried in the ground, this blog has laid dormant for too long. I'm going to add some water and light and bring it back to life.  

I took the first amaryllis photo with my iPad.  It may be the first and last photo that I take with the iPad, but I thought that I would try this first post just using the Blogger app on the iPad.  I love my iPad but I'm not a fan of it for photography. It's just to awkward to use to get a great photo.  Next time I will try to bring in an iPhone photo or perhaps one from my new camera. 

I am a fan of Amaryllis. I ended up with two bulbs this year. This one was an impulse purchase from Countryside, the night of their wine tasting event. A week after I planted it, we received one as a parting gift at a friend's 90th birthday party. That bulb is moving a bit slower, which means I should have blooms for the rest of this long winter. 


And look at this, I can import photos from the iPhone! Here's the bud about a week ago.