I love...

gardening. It takes my mind away from the 'garden of children' that occupy me Monday through Friday. Gardening occupies your every sense. Today my nose was treated to the pungent smell of thyme as I pruned the roaming mass that clambers over and around plants and rocks in the front rockery. I winced at the sound of limb to limb, agonized screeching, that resulted when today's strong winds swayed the cherry trees to and fro. I sampled the greens I wintered over and they are sweet and tender, not bitter in the least. Tomorrow I will thin and transplant them into containers so that we get to eat them before the slugs and snails. I felt the cold, wet soil right through my winterized Atlas garden gloves, but fortunately I felt no pain as I pruned the last of the ornamental grasses, the ferns in the front yard and in the east rockery. I filled our yard waste container to the tippy top in no time flat. What did I see? Well, so much more than even these pictures can share...

Golden crocuses perk up from their drab winter beds.


Hellebores beckon bees. Yes! I saw 3 honeybees busy in my Hellebores. I have a beekeeper neighbor so that may be the source of such early bee activity.



In shades of deepest burgundy, mauve, speckled white, and lightest green, the Hellebores nod downwards, looking at the their cool moist beds as if to say "I want to sleep, please oh please, just one more week!"





It may look drab in this picture but it is anything but. Chris says he will be doing the first mowing of the lawn this month...if it stops raining long enough for the grass to dry.



Feb. 20th In the morning I went to the Sacred Harp convention which was held on Mercer Is. this year. It was a beautiful sunny day and cold, probably in the low 40s. It was SO clear, every single mountain was visible; even Mt. Adams and Mt. Baker. Once at home I worked for 3 hours in the yard cutting the ferns back in the rockery. I do believe I have attacked nearly every fern in the yard. The pile of fronds will not fit into one week of the yard waste bin; but maybe two if I am lucky. Tomorrow I am treating myself to a spa day at Olympus Spa in Tacoma. A massage is just what my gardening muscles need!





Feb. 27th Tomorrow it is back to the classroom for me. I can't remember a mid-winter break that has typified winter more than this one. We had snow and below normal temperatures for most of the week. Looking back, I made the best choice of this time off. I painted AR's bedroom (Durango Dust), started work on taxes, and I saw two movies: Black Swan (creepy) and Winter's Bone (sad, but what beautiful scenery in the midst of squalor).