Random Thoughts

It came! The mega quantity of Fox/Bobcat stuff is here! It's heavier than I realized and....stinks. Hmmm. I didn't recall the smaller quantities having an odor. It also didn't cover as much ground as I anticipated, but perhaps I was more generous in quantity than I needed to be. Anyway, my husband walks outside, sniffs the air, and announces "We have a skunk." Looking up from my perch where I am inspecting vole holes, I smartly reply, "It's fox/bobcat, of course." As if anyone could tell.

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The other day I went shopping with perfectly good intentions of buying shoes. A general mundane sort of task that is necessary. So, I ask myself, how did I end up in the department with ceramic pots and garden gewgaws? It's as if gardening is so ingrained in me that even the simpliest of tasks changes without any stream of consciousness. The pots were rather nice and reasonably priced. (I bought two. Shoes, I can buy any day, right?)

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Seed starting. I mean to. Well, I mean I have, actually. Lots and lots of daylilies are growing in my dining room. Hundreds, in fact. It's kind of like the lottery. Out of all these daylilies just may come something so spectacular as to turn the daylily world on its head. I won't find out for two years, the usual time frame for bloom for daylilies started from seed.

I've set aside a tray for planting other things. Tomatoes and peppers, some annuals, and a few herbs, the usual suspects. It's just that the daylilies have filled my head this year. Maybe I will just buy these things, these ordinary backbone-of-the-summer-garden plants. Maybe not. There's still time.

Last year, I wintered sowed many things. More than I got around to planting, I'm ashamed to say. The past two years, I enjoyed putting my seeds for all kinds of things into milk jugs and other containers and letting them do it all themselves on my deck. It's easy (lots of information on gardenweb in the winter sowing forum).

This year, you may have guessed it...the only seeds I've winter sown are...daylilies. Daylilies on shelves with lights (the more pampered ones) and daylilies in windows are the indoor cousins of the poor ones outside. I was informed by my family that the lights on the daylilies in the dining room can be seen from the road outside and clearly are lighting the way for aliens from outer space. Well, maybe daylily loving ones.

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One of my favorite things to do before going to sleep is to read. While I love a good murder mystery, I don't like to read them then (because I will stay up all night reading, for one, and second, because I like pleasant dreams, not who-done-it worries). My favorite reads at bedtime are garden books. Or garden magazines, if I'm really tired, as I can just enjoy the pictures. I truly do dream of flowers and gardening. I'm considering writing about some of my favorite garden books here. For a while, I did little garden book reviews for our local master gardener association newsletter. It began to feel like a chore or a school assignment that was due. Pretty silly as it was strictly voluntary. I'll think about it some more.

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Reminder to myself to work on posting pictures. I gave it one little unsuccesful try. I have a few pictures of the early crocus, the snowdrops and the hellebores. Oh, and the snow from that other weekend. It seems I can only post one picture at a time? There must be a way to post them all. Gotta get in picture taking shape! Spring will be bursting out here before I'm ready (with the camera).

Sam (the cat) is sitting here. He reminds me that other things and events demand my attention. The daylilies in the dining room haven't been checked for at least...what...a couple hours? Okay....until later....I gotta garden (even if it is in the dining room).