March 2, 2014
Will Spring Ever Arrive?
As I sit in my den with a blanket covering my legs and my computer on my lap, watching the sleet fall, I truly do wonder if this winter will ever end. Hey, it could be worse! This storm was supposed to be primarily freezing rain, which could mean loss of electricity, and still might. So far, so good.
Normally by the first of March, I would have weeded and mulched a few of the daylily beds, but with the temperature continuing to plummet to single digits, I’m afraid to disturb the plants. Besides, with the frequent freezing and thawing of the soil, the ground is either too hard, or a soggy mess. Much of the time I couldn’t get my garden gate open because the frozen ground had expanded so much. When I did manage to enter my garden, the ground was so soft it was like stepping into quicksand.
One day last week the weather warmed and the ground had stayed thawed long enough to dry out some. So I checked on my beds. Fortunately, I think the weather must have been too cold even for the winter weeds, because I saw very few.
The only outside work I have done this winter is to clean one shelf in the shed, and to pull up several dozen plant markers from my front yard. Lucy, the outside dog who adopted us last summer, loves to pull up the stakes and chew the markers (no telling what that’s doing to her teeth!) Guess I’ll have to rely on maps for those beds. I’ll have to really watch her in my garden, where my more expensive plants are located. She makes up for that glaring fault, however, since she has killed at least eight moles so far. That also sort of compensates for the holes in the yard.
So what have I done all winter to keep from going into daylily withdrawal?
1. Attend the Region 10 Midwinter Symposium in Nashville.
2. Travel with three friends by train to New Orleans just in time for the bridges to ice over and the city to be practically shut down for two days.
3. Order daylilies from the Shooters, Tim Herrington, Richard Norris, and Dan Bachman.
4. Watch ALL the Olympic figure skating, once I discovered that NBC Sports covered it live beginning at 9AM.
5. Take supper weekly to my son and daughter-in-law and visit with my 10-month-old granddaughter (at least, when she was well enough and there wasn’t ice on the roads).
6. Start this website.
7. Rediscover cross-stitch.
8. Make a couple of books on Shutterfly.
9. Read, watch TV, and play computer games a LOT.
What have you done all winter?
