Its spring

This weekend, we had bikes, shorts, rollerbladers and baseball in the park. I woke this morning to an incredible noise as birds sang proud, sure I would open the curtains to some exotic jungle. To top it off, the first crocus are blooming on in my lawn! Yes oddly enough we have no Forsythia in bloom. And apricot or cherry trees are not even swollen budded yet, a full month after the year before last.

I sit and do the math, thinking, my last frost date is first week of May, but how can everything catch up now? There is simply not enough time and then I check the weather forecast and it shows below seasonal averages for next 2 weeks. and so I rush to my PC and check the 14 day weather forecast - again. it hasn't changed since 30 minutes ago.

Today the guy at the post office asked if I had a landscaping business, having seen me somewhere I guess. As much as gardening started with a desire to do manual labour away from the digital world I work in, it has in many ways connected me with both the past and nature. I feel keenly the seasons and weather, and notice shoots, birds even daylight hours, I normally would not. My body aches from my weekend endeavours, and I laugh that there is gym fit, and then garden fit.

As usual I was a in a bit of a rush and planted out a few hardy seedlings late last week. Checking on them today, it appears I had a high mortality rate. Mainly due to wind, wildlife and a bit dry. Yet I am so excited about the seedlings its and my limited space indoors, I find it hard not to. This year I am planting a couple fidderkraut cabbage, which I am really excited about to try and learn to make sauerkraut. I have planted daikon's and Chinese cabbage for  kimchi making and I really eager to try my rapine, Japanese turnips and Kumatsuna and some new mustards and maybe try some Tsukemono, I am also trying small potatoes from Scotland and France and made potato boxes on the weekend, only to wake in the middle of last night with a far improved design!

Gardening has become an amazing hobby for serial hobbyist. There seems a never ending supply of challenges, opportunity and learning. I went over to fertilize my neighbour in her 80's lawn for her and realized  that I am constantly learning and developing skills that most modern people my age have forgotten, yet to her, it has always being a way of life. How can a little over a generation change so far and what does that say for the next.

Winter is a time of planning and spring the time for implementing that plan. So although the season may be late, and I am reliant on store bought, globally shipped produce,  today I am so excited. I got my peas in!