Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring Has Sprung!

And I, for one, am ecstatic and began the day with a colorful plate of fresh Florida strawberries I found earlier in the week.

OK, now that I've calmed down and faced the reality that March is not a spring month in Maine, it's time to at least begin planning the garden.

I had every intention of taking a few of the hardier plants out of the winter garden room downstairs and moving them to the sunny loft in the garage, where I've set up a potting/seeding station, however, when I went outside, I felt it was still just a wee bit too cold. Not to be deterred in my celebration of the Vernal Equinox, I ventured out and cut a few pussy willows that I had spied blooming while on my walk up the drive yesterday.

Just the thing for my Grandmother's vase.

Despite not being able to take anything over to the garage, I brought a couple of overwintered geraniums upstairs to clean them up by removing all the dried leaves and give them a nice watering and bath.

The one on the left has several buds just about ready to bloom, so I put them in front of the south facing sliding glass door in the bedroom so they can soak up the sun.

I also cut back the rosemary sprigs I had rooted last autumn. They look pretty puny, but with a wee bit of good old Miracle Grow, some sun and warmth, they will take off!


I've begun picking up some seeds as I see them on sale in various stores. These are just a few packets, but I have more than I need stashed away!

I'll start putting the cold hardy ones out as soon as we get back from our visit with my Mom and Dad.

Last Sunday, we had a nice warm day and decided we would drive over to Sorrento for a walk to our favorite beach and look for sea glass. Since the tourists have all been gone for the winter and we've had several stormy days, the pickings would undoubtedly be good.

And, I was right! The beach was loaded with glass, but I only picked up ones that were either unusual in color or shape. Brown is all over, but green, white and especially blue are harder to find. We left loads more for the tourists when they return this summer.

H was the winner of the hunt as he found both of the "bluey's!

We also headed over to Bar Harbor on Tuesday to wander the streets and see which stores were open. Most of them were still boarded up for the season, with signs out front stating when they would reopen, but we stopped in to Sherman's Bookstore to browse and then headed to Geddy's for lunch. It's always nice to visit off season and we like to look across the park at the Bar Harbor Inn and reminisce where our adventures all started and we ended up in Maine.

And now, for the cat segment of the post!

Sluggo, it seems, has found a new favorite spot sitting on top of the fridge. He's been looking at how he might make it on top of the cabinets, but I don't think he's quite agile enough to make it. At least not yet!

His Majesty, Spike, just looks bored with the whole thing.

And so ends our first exciting spring day of the year!

Life is Good!

Hugs, Giddy

5 comments:

Kerri said...

Happy first day of spring, Giddy!!! Yay!
Well, yes....I know it's still cold with a wind blowing straight from the arctic...but at least we had bright sunshine today :)
I must go down to the river and cut a few pussy willows tomorrow. Your grandmother's vase is so pretty, and just perfect for the PWs.
Plants, seeds, beach walks and Bar Harbor...all my kind of activities...sounds great. I've been starting seeds this week.
Thanks for the kitty fix pics :) Those boys are always up to something..or at least Sluggo is :)
Enjoy the visit to your parents! I hope the trip goes better than your last one to visit H's mom.

Anonymous said...

Hi Giddy - enjoyed this post (and our shared title!) and those strawberries look yummy for sure! It's funny though - here in FL the gardening season is winding down - it's just too hot in the summer (I think for the gardeners, not the garden!)

And I'm definitely jealous of your sea glass. I've been searching the beach here but have only found one piece worn enough to qualify as sea glass. The rest was just too fresh and sharp and so just classified as trash.

Diana LaMarre said...

Your plants are looking good, Giddy. What a fun afternoon it would be to walk along the shore picking up sea glass. Will you do some mosiac projects?

Naturegirl said...

Well it's nice to see that you are making the best out of not really having the warm Spring temps. for gardening. Love the shot of your beach and oh that beach glass..treasures for sure. Your cats are like mine..one is a climber..my Babie and Paisley seems to be satisfied staying low to the ground. Be careful with your kitty and the heights that it will jump down from..my daughters cat tore a ligament in it's back leg jumping down from a height..so I would dicouraged the high cupboards! Very long and expensive recovery from the injury.
Time for the spray bottle.
Thank you for commenting at Nature-Trail so that I am now linked to another lover of cats!! Purzzzz!NG

Anonymous said...

Glad you had such a great first day! The strawberries look so springy.

We are still quite muddy here, but I did go for a walk in the woods two days ago. Nothing green yet there at all.

I have only been lucky enough to find good seaglass once.