Happy New Year! I had started to use an old draft... the 2016 tomato and pepper gardening notes. They were rather optimistic till I hit the death wall and finally admitted defeat in September, sigh. 2016 was rough in a lot of ways- and I hope that 2017 turns out better.
But this years season has already started- I sowed in lettuce, herbs, and some toothache plant on the 28th, and already we have some lettuce peeping out as of this morning. I've also started up most the the stuff that needs cold stratifying- thimbleberry, serviceberry, red and white currants, a bunch of kinds of columbines, hibiscuses and hyacinths, and a handful of other random flowers. Most of the solarium plants are looking pretty good, so that's nice. It has stayed above freezing so far this winter- but then we didn't really see any full on cold till a couple weeks ago, so that helps.
I've kind of been chomping at the bit.. I did a bit of awesome sale action with a couple of my fave seed vendors and tried out a new one just prior to Christmas as part of my yearly stocking... But my sis and I traded "vendor lists" for an unexpected treat to unwrap- and squee to getting my wish list filled!
So now is the time for remembering when strats need to get underway- and what is still waaaaaay too early for me to even dream about- but hey, still, I'm dreaming :) and it's time to learn about some new seeds that are coming up...
Devil's claw is one I've been looking at for a while, but is always one of those wishlist items really- and this year it is now for the growing.. Interesting plant really :)
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0801.htm
http://art-fromthe-heart.deviantart.com/art/Giant-Devil-Claw-Phoenix-138005761
January 2
Was planning on running errands early afternoon while the weather was still nice... but got a call from a friend I hadn't spoken to in months in the late morning... and four hours later.. Lol. At least I got the shopping list together and dinner is in the oven.. a bit of laundry and plant watering done. But it was a good call... I hermit up too much and don't keep in contact with people enough- I got a lot of really great friends, and I just have... drifted.
For some trustee notes.. what goes on in a wee bit of local government :)
I set up a meeting for Wed with a couple of guys at the town hall about going over mowing contracts. Right now parks and cemeteries use two different mowing folks, and we need to consolidate that. So the meeting is in part to educate me on what is exactly in the contracts, and probably some discussion on who all can be contacted for bidding. This will start off a process of bring up the subject at a TH meeting, so it can be approved for us to actually start getting contract bids. After we get those, then we can present that back to the board to read over and think about- then vote on what to approve, or if we want to stay any decisions for a month so everyone can really go over the paperwork. By the time spring is going to kick in, we should have a consolidated and more economic plan voted in and contracted.
Janurary 4..
Got out and did my errands yesterday- while out and about got a call from Town Hall about a problem at one of the parks, and unsecured building. Heck, I didn't have those keys! Well, the guy that takes care of it did- and made sure I have my own key now so I can take care of it if needed. Today we sat down and talked mowing contracts... and I seriously need to clean my office. I can't tell one stack of "filing" from the next right now, heh. Hopefully the weather will play nice and I can get a bit of time in tomorrow.
I was able to get the first scatting of poppy seeds over Pookums grave yesterday. Kind of made me a bit of a wreck- I miss my boy and it really hurts.
Got some more seeds set up today- a couple more cold strats, white and yellow strawberries, and a couple more crazy berry types. Went through my bulbs, and my my I need to get some of them into pots for spring peeping! I got some sproutin' going on there. Asparagus seed will be getting potted up soon enough too. Growing season has really already started.
Puttered around in the living room today- getting some after Christmas cleanup done. And I'm ready for it to be done. Started dinking a wee bit with Fortunes Turning too- I guess I'm used to messing around and re-arranging it for the last four months, I'm kind of itching to mess around again. Soon enough I think early spring will be coming, lol. I know my love meant it with snarky encouragement.. but I'm kind of wanting to keep the village up more. And yet at the same time- pack up to the most part and renormalize the living room so I can start looking forward to Halloween all over again :) Maybe I'm just already tired of weeks of winter snowscape in the living room, lol. I do get tired of snow and cold very quickly.
With the turning of the year comes up thoughts of BeesNeeds again. The Etsy shop has been closed for quite a while now, and the FB page has languished. I've also been smacked with what amounts to writers block for a while now when it comes to being creative like that. I've been having some flare ups with creativity when doing village stuff here and there- and that's promising. And I've been slowly using coupons and clearances to build up the sparkly stock again for a few months now. Part of creativity drying up is looking over and over again at the same old stuff and trying to come up with something new. And just feeling nothing beautiful inside of me that needs or even is interested in coming out. And my workbench being buried forever under all the Fortunes Turning stuff and holiday stuff coming and going... But I would like to start up trying to sell stuff again- just because no one was interested last time means no one would be next time... sai.
January 8th..
Brrrrr. Baby, it's too fucking cold out there... But inside our first week of lettuce is looking good on the windowsill and this weeks round has popped up right on cue. I potted up 16 pots of spring bulbs today so they grow into some nice blocks for spring planting.
I have found that picking up bulbs at the tail end of their fall planting season and holding them in their original packaging and then "block forcing" them an effective technique.
January 14th... Not much going on.. been potting up more bulbs, started a bit more lettuce seed. It's been seasonably cold... But I am happy to say the solarium has been keeping at 10-12 degrees above the outside temps so far. That means keeping above that magic 32 degree mark for a lot of stuff- so far. We have dipped below the 35 degree mark a few times though, so I think a few of the plants out there might be toast- but last year some of them surprised me, so I'm trying to be patient. And plenty of them are looking rather healthy, so that's good.
But mostly just drifting around the house doing house stuff. Feeding the birds- and my word we got some birds. A few of the bluebirds are eating size, seriously. They put the regular ones to shame, and make the cardinals look puny. I need to make more suet cakes soon :) I make my own because I think it's healthier for the birds, and I use up a lot of "spoiled" grain products from the pantry when the moths get into it- I don't want to eat the bugginess, but the birds like it.
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