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Its Sunday night and since Friday we have had one storm after another Right now it is snowing and blowing and I am to be at work at 8 AM but right now its not looking too good, I dont mind the odd snow day but, this is getting to be a bit much since I lost fridays shift due to weather and I am concerned about Christmas eve and Christmas both days we have to go to London . I think we should be prepared to spend a quite Christmas together at home just incase. I sure hope the weather staightens out some for all who must travel to be with family. we'll see what the morning brings.I bet just another 3 feet of snow :-)
Spring has sprung here finally the last 3 weeks have been lovely and warm and much is happening in the garden all the beds have been prepped and ready and I have begun moving some plants around but must be careful to watch for some of the late boomers like my balloon flowers which seem to take their time to break soil . Temps have been good today is going to be in the mid to low 70s and on the weekend we were in the low 80s in fact we could use a bit of rain. Today I want to clean up under the cedar hedge along side of the driveway that we planted last fall they made it through the winter ok but I will need to replace 2 cedars out front that are lookin pretty sad. My potting shed needs a going through want to clear out a few things I am not using and never will time to purge some and since this is our week for spring cleanup I want to get things ready for the curb and drop off the rest of the items at the sally ann. Its also its time for some of my plants to come out from under the grow lights and into the potting shed so they can begin to harden off I am pleased with my plants this year my geraniums petunias and impatiens have done really well and are ready for the potting shed but will need to be covered if we get any frost so I will be watching the forecasts closely. I have 8 blue poppies but they are very slow growers just now getting true leaves. the danish flag poppies grow at a much faster rate and of them I have 6, but the poppies will stay under the lights for a while longer and those blue poppies are really going to need babying . I feel for the folks out west as they are up to their necks in snow and temps are bitter cold there. Well sun is shinning and much I want to accomplish today so better get started.
Sun is playing hide and seek today when it shines it calls me to come outdoors . You can definitely feel that spring has arrived I spotted robins in the yard yesterday although there are still some big mounds of snow around left over from the big storm we had a few weeks back. My rock garden in front is totally visible and it temps me to start a clean up but I think I will be patient just a little longer. After my short lived excitement Monday over discovering that I had some success with my blue poppies ( the count is now 5) I was in a panic when I went for my camera to take some pics and it was not in the case I am usually very cautious with my camera and always return it to the case as I had thought I'd done after our trail walk on Sunday but I must have gotten side tracked or I would have realized it wasn't in my coat pocket when we returned home . Rudy and I figure it must have slipped out while we were navigated our way off trail which was impassable because the river had risen over the banks some so we went around the flooded area by cutting through the bush climbing up and over jumping from one spot to another and it was then that my camera must have fallen out. Monday in the blinding snow we made an attempt to back track our steps but no luck it was snowing fairly hard and had been snowing most of the day and was just too difficult to see ,so I posted notes and offered a reward but was so sick about it, how could I have let this happen I am usually so careful with it. One day later its a beautiful day lots of sunshine and very mild temps" a lovely spring day "and Rudy suggest we go have another look he must have been reading my mind, this time we could see our tacks from Sunday and where we had cut through and sure enough there it was it had been lying there since Sunday and was no worse for wear amazing. I am thankful and lessons learned when out and about it comes in the case no more slipping it in my coat pocket I should have know better! I am off today and since I cannot be in the garden I am going to work on the stairs get them ready to be varithaned.
Wow! what a surprise! so small you . almost need to put your glasses on to see them, but there they are 3 tiny green shoots more than I had even hoped for. After trying several times before with no success finally I have done it . I have to say I am pretty excited about it really its a big deal for me and why I love gardening. I cant wait to tell Rudy I know after seeing me try several times before he will be thrilled for me . I had put the poppies in the potting shed for 5 weeks and then they came in under the grow lights March 9th and for days and days nothing seemed to be happening, at one point I thought perhaps they were too soggy so I placed them on the upper shelf of my stand which seems to be the warmest spot, but while doing some research I realized that too much warmth would not be good either so I moved them once again to the lower shelf and each day as I tend to my other trays of seeds and seedlings there are no signs of blue poppy life. I thought perhaps I had either rotted them away with too much moisture or cooked them with to much warmth but then I began to noticed the soil didn't seem so damp and I began to mist them daily along with my other trays thinking they were probably not going to amount to much but what the heck I would give it a few more days although thinking I would just pick up some more seeds and try again. So this morning as I am tending to my indoor garden checking on my danish flag poppies( which took awhile to germinate and made me wonder if all poppies are difficult to grow from seed) but did eventually began to grow to where I now have 10 tiny seedlings, as I moved on to check my no show blue poppies tray ,surprise! are my eyes deceiving me? where are my glasses?.... low and behold green!!! could it be? oh my ! yes it is!!!! so far the count is 3 but this is just step one the challenge now will be to keep them growing strong and healthy,and what a thrill it would be to one day plant them out in my garden so they must get my undivided attention. All other seedlings are doing really well and I am pleased. This is fun ! I love it ! :-).
Still on the inside looking out longing to get my hands in the dirt and to do some of the projects I am excited to get at we are still covered in snow , were having more days of sunshine but were still wearing our winter gloves instead of gardening gloves. Seedlings doing just fine, I planted 2 flats of browallia and 1 flat of phlox and they are just starting to germinate. Impatiens doing better since I put them in separate pots and petunias are ready to be separated that will be a job for tomorrow. .Mmmmm......... hams cooking and hubby says is smellin goood! We are off to London today to my brothers and his family to celebrate Easter as well as birthdays Crystal my youngest was 24 Thursday me I am blank blank :-) today and mom God Bless her who is 40 years older than me will be 91 a week from today, then April 7 Jennifer will be 26 and finally April 24 Haliee boo the grandbaby will be 2 so we have much to celebrate and I look forward to spending the day with all. Eric my oldest will not be there as hes in Italy near the end of a year long backpacking tour of Europe we have all missed him very much over the past year at our gatherings but we are pleased hes had the opportunity to see and experience so many amazing things . So I wish everyone has a wonderful Easter with their family and friends and those of you who can be in your gardens enjoy!
Just another day of being couped up inside looking out the window at my garden buried deep in snow wishing for spring wanting to get started at all the plans for my garden I have dreamt up over the winter We are headed for another deep freeze weather channel called it an icy blast boy I cant wait for that just what I need!!! Seedlings are doing as they should be growing a little each day geraniums have tiny baby true leaves so cute :-) but all I can do is make sure they stay moist and get the light they need I have been toying with they idea of getting out the wood stripper and working on finishing stripping the stairs and maybe working on the banister it needs to be done and I need to keep busy, but first its lunch time so a bowl of soup on this cold winters day is in order and and then who knows .
Today is the 1st ever family day a new paid paid holiday here in Ontario Canada. The powers that be felt we needed a paid holiday in Febuary...... gott'a love it eh! So Febuary 18th was proclaimed to be Family Day and in fact I love the concepted and I hope people will use this day to connect with their loved ones as Rudy and I did. I found some time to play with my camera today and was able to add a few pics, some winter photos and a few shots of the interiour of my shed showing the shelves I put up to hold some of my clay pots and a few pics of Boo!. My seedlings are doing well I am pleased with the high germination rate I recieved on both the impatiens and the gerainiums The true leaves of the gerainiums are beginning to show poppies are frozen in the shed and will come inside in a few weeks I will start my petunias and the end of the month and my zinnas at the end of March We had plenty of rain on Sunday which helped to wash away some of the snow but made for slippery conditions later in the day as the temperture dropped The garage is about 90% done we will be so pleased to not have that to deal with and to move on and get back to other things its been a challenge and a long road.
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