Tiny squirrels, tiny patience.

Started accumulating a few plants to fill up the many, many pots.  I have worked on the “dry creek bed” at the downspout area and fought the urge, fought it again, still fighting, to put something in the ground.  I have started “hardening” the few plants I have by setting them outside and then bringing them back in at night.  We have a few more days of cold nights…below 40…ahead but I think the freeze is over.  Possibly.  There’s a chance that Wednesday will get below 32.  Come on.  My patience is wearing thin.  

For the last couple of years we have had a black squirrel running around the property.  I have only seen one, at least I think its just one.  However, this morning I noticed a little bitty black squirrel, a baby, chasing around with other tiny squirrels.  Now, my old neighbor told me when we first spotted the lone black squirrel a couple years ago that they are not a separate type of squirrel but more of a rare coloring of your typical squirrel.  So, it’s not like I have new varieties of squirrels popping up, just regular old squirrels that have a degree of “melanism”.  Here’s some info, if you would care to learn more: https://animalsake.com/facts-about-black-squirrels

At any rate, the tiny little squirrels chasing around and around the wood chip pile and up and down trees this morning are very entertaining.  As soon as they start uprooting my plantings I will be less enamored, I’m sure. 


facebook.com/cindiswindowlakeliving

Not rushing it, but I'm ready!

It’s doing it to me again, this late January thaw…I am itching to get out in my dirt, with shovel and hoe and plant matter.  This dull, grey weather and the brown that is peaking through the melting pristine snow makes me start to plan and, gulp, shop online.

I was super frustrated over the weekend over the lack of gardening shows that are broadcast these days.  What the heck? As one online article put it there’s a lot more “H” and little “G” in HGTV.  I loved the gardening shows of the past and hope to see the Do It Yourself network continue with Yard Crashers, which does still air episodes, thank goodness.  Limited, but, they are there on Saturday mornings. 

  

My Pinterest board is filled with gardening ideas.  This year, I will be able to spread some rock and more mulch since the interior of the house is substantially finished.  This year, the deck, porch and landscaping are the focus!  I have already spent hours scrolling through pins and posts, and jotted down ideas and color combinations.  I will admit to a slight obsession with pots and planters, and maybe already own more than I need..but a few more won't hurt. 

In the article I mention above, one point made is maybe people who garden spend more time outside and less in front of the TV, which is fair.  Maybe we do like to get outside and get our hands in the dirt and feet in the mud, and not in the living room watching another house flip show. (You can read the article here, but it was posted in 2017) Forgive me, but I do not want to see one more tiny house episode.  Not one.  As I said to my brothers, and mentioned in a previous post, I grew up in a mobile home…ya can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig, and those tiny homes?  We called ‘em trailers.  

I made my way out to the shed over the weekend to put two little Christmas trees from the porch away.  I have to come out here, I thought, and take inventory of what I might need for spring planting and there's definitely some clean up that needs to happen, evident from the tow rope hanging down from the ski tube stowed in the rafters. Yes, the list is long and growing.  While January might be a little too early to start thinking about plants, mulch, pots and planters, I can't help myself, especially on days of thaw.  I look forward to the green of spring, those little shoots of crocus and daffodils shoving their way through, assuring us once again, that these longer days aren't misguiding us, that spring really is just around the corner.  


facebook.com/cindiswindowlakeliving