A Quick Update

Life is coming at me fast these days, so I only have time for a quick update to the blog. With the warmer, sunshiny days, the garden is beginning to awaken from it's long winter's nap. While taking a quick tour before work yesterday, I noticed lots of activity. The aruncus (Goat's Beard) is popping through, as are several daylillies, crocus, hyacinths and nepeta (Catmint).

I will be busy with grandmotherly duties for the next few days, so I'll not have time to get out and enjoy the spring awakening of the garden, however, I'll be enjoying the little ones immensely, I'm sure. I'm hoping to get the grandkids interested in gardening by helping them plant a bean teepee. We shall see.


Ashton, who is 4 will probably be a very willing participant, however, I think I'll be doing more chasing after Kaiya, who is only 2.

No matter what, we are looking forward to seeing everyone!

We've Only Just Begun

I was humming these lovely Karen Carpenter lyrics as I was raking out the perennial beds this afternoon. I made the mistake of stepping out into the yard to enjoy the sunshine and found myself bending over to yank out a few dead daylilly stems. As you can imagine, one thing led to another and the next thing I knew, I had shed my jacket, gotten out the rake and clippers from the garage and went to work. Two hours and several huge piles of debris later, I realized that I was going to be one sore garden gnome tomorrow!Now, it only remains to decide where to put all this debris. Last year's compost is full and I need to start a new one.Ah well, that's tomorrow's dilemma. I think I'll just sit down and knit for a while. "-)

When the Saints Come Marching In!

Well, here I sit, reflecting on the gloomy weather upon us. Today, we are thanking St. Patrick for the lovely snowstorm deposited on his day. We also enjoyed the St. Valentine's nor'easter a few weeks ago. I think I've about had enough of the dreary winter weather and was looking forward to spring peeking around the corner. After all, we had just experienced a few days of beautiful, thawing weather and were anticipating more of the same. Instead, Mother Nature is thumbing her nose at our naivete at thinking March is a spring month.

Yes, Virginia, we have several weeks, if not months of cool weather with which to contend before our dreams of balmy days, green grass and colorful flowers are realized.

With that in mind, I share with you some of my favorite photos of last summer:


Delphiniums, Goatsbeard, Catmint, Stella D'Oro Daylillies

William Baffin RoseLate Summer Rudbeckias


So much for dreaming - here's reality today!

So much to do and so little time

For the past week or so we've been busy just trying to keep up with snow, ice, sanding, and myriad other chores so I've not been blogging much.

I did manage to finish two knitting projects - the green cable sweater for my grandson is finally done and a bucket hat for my eldest son, although it looks a bit small so Ashton may inherit that, as well.
The ice in the door yard is finally beginning to melt, the water rushing down the driveway, gurgling as it finds the lowest part and cascades past the garage. The weather promises to be warm for the next couple of days so I'm hopeful we will see most of the snow gone shortly. However, being a realist and realizing that our heaviest snows generally fall in the month of March, I'm not holding my breath. Needless to say, we aren't taking the plow off the truck until the end of the month.

We managed a short hike in Acadia last week. The temperature was warm, but the wind was still cool coming off the ocean and, there was still lots of ice.Thoughts of spring and gardening are beginning to take root in my mind. I am taking a course in ornamental garden design and today, we will be planning our gardens with spring, summer and autumn overlays so we can plant perennials for a fairly constant show of color. Today is the last class and I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with. Most of the ladies in the class have also expressed interest in participating in the upcoming Master Gardener Course. It's a 14 week committment, but I think it will be well worth the time.

Knitting Class

I am so enjoying my weekly knitting class, and learning a lot to boot. I've already finished two hats, a sweater for my granddaughter, two pairs of socks and am currently working on a cable knit sweater for my grandson and a hat for myself.

I find knitting to be very soothing (except when I find an error several rows back and have to rip out my work) and I look forward to sitting down each evening and having something to occupy my hands other than chips or something worse!

Best of all are the new friends I've made at class. They are a fun loving group of ladies and we have a ball knitting and chatting among the yarn.

Today, I'm off to a class in ornamental garden design. Can spring be far behind?

Yesterday's Storm.......

.......was a doozy! We ended up with about a foot of snow and a nice icy crunch on top. The day started off about 3 a.m. when H burst into the bedroom yelling "Aargh! I can't get the computer up and it's the most important weather day of the year"!!!!

Soooo, I reluctantly hop out of bed to tend to the computer and put H at ease. A few minutes and two cups of coffee later, I'm wired and ready to go. The storm is still hours away, but I manage to keep busy learning new things and downloading several software programs which did not come equipped with the new pc.

The snow begins as light flakes lazily drifting down from the sky. This doesn't look too bad, but the weather radar shows an ominous, huge area of snow, ice, sleet and rain slowly descending upon us. As the day progresses, our worst fears begin to take form and the snow and wind whip into a blizzard like white out.

In order to keep up with the huge volume of snow, H and I venture out frequently to shovel snow off the deck and plow the long, uphill driveway. Needless to say, we got plenty of exercise! Our last swing was about 4:30 p.m., and by that time the sleet and ice pellets had begun in earnest. As the light of day ebbed, I think we had a wee bit of rain to boot.Honest, I really do like snow!

Pink and Purple Sunset

As February 2007 slowly melted into March, I took this beautiful sunset photo last night:March is typically a very snowy month up here in the north and it looks as though March will be coming in like the proverbial Lion! Tomorrow, we are expecting 8 - 12 inches of snow and they are predicting the usual "mixing" here on the coast. Rats! Looks like another icy storm coming our way. We can only hope that the low pressure area will ooze out to sea and leave us with just snow. Only time will tell, but we are prepared to jump out of bed in the morning and begin our daily calisthenics by shoveling and plowing the white stuff. I'm sure we'll have had quite enough exercise by the time the sun sets tomorrow!