This and That

Some odds and ends:


As I was carrying my seedlings to the coldframe this morning I heard the strangest sound. Some sort of rumbling from over the neighbor's fence.

Oh yeah, I recognize that racket. He thinks his lawn needs mowing!
Is that possible already? I guess so. I doubt Fletcher would be doing it for his health. Amazing. I think spring is officially here when lawns need mowing.
Ours doesn't although it's nice and green already.



Remember when I bought these for work because my feet were killing me?




Well, my feet are still killing me. And since I have falling arches I purchased these;


They didn't work. My arches didn't hurt yesterday but for some reason the inserts squished my toes up so badly I thought my feet were going to fall off. So today I'm going to use these old standbys and see how that goes. I got the lovely falling arch thing after being on my feet for 12 hour shifts at Micron.















Our new furniture has arrived and we're thrilled with it.








Looks as if we'll be having company for the summer! We're excited. More on that in a later post.


I was out checking the garden today and saw this.



At first I thought it was a lily coming up but it's still early for them. Then I realized it is one of the Fritillaria imperialis or Crown Imperials, that I transplanted around the garden last year. I hope they do well this year.

I also saw peonies budding, both herbacious and tree;



The lysimachia punctata 'Alexander" is showing;



In the shade garden I see both the Polemonium 'Stairway to Heaven' I planted last year are alive.



And of course, the Bishop's Weed is back. I enjoy the coverage this plant provides, but be warned, it will spread like crazy if you let it.



I did a double take when I saw this;




Seems really early for a strawberry bloom, Fragaria or not, but I'll have to trust it knows what it's doing.



I decided to try the Winter Sowing idea I saw on Connie's blog. Yeah, I know, it's not winter anymore. Here's my reasoning; we're still getting freezing temperatures here at night, I want to get a feel for the winter sowing idea, I'm out of light space in the spare bedroom and I got these milk jugs free from work! Justification enough? Works for me.

I planted all three with white foxglove seed;



I like to stuff the area underneath the flowering crab with them.



Next year I'll put some in the moongarden also.

And last thing, I talked my husband into a small act of vandalism.
Well, maybe not vandalism. Let's call it "borrowing", shall we?
He went down to the house on the corner of our block, which is for sale, and snipped a couple of these;





We've always admired their weeping pussy willow tree and these were simply suckers coming up from the bottom. So, really, we're doing the future owners a favor, right?
And in about five years we hope to have our own little weeping pussy willow.


I know all my readers are holding your breath waiting for my seedling update. I promise, it's forthcoming.