SPRING CLEANING

Let's be honest.  We in the Northeast wish that the beginning of spring really came with the springing ahead of the clocks.  But in reality we know that there's at least one more cold snap lurking just around the corner and it often comes with a March or April snow storm.  I can't tell you how many of our Easter Sunday photos were taken in our pretty little Easter dresses and bonnets as we shivered with teeth chattering. But Mother Nature is giving us a few spectacular days this week to really get our hopes up that spring is actually here to stay! 

There have been a few garden days this week and there are little signs of spring all around the garden.  I tried to get a photo to submit to the GGW's March photo contest -- the theme is awakening -- but didn't find anything I love so far.  An emerging strawberry plant :

 

A blurry shot of my bleeding heart...containers do warm up faster:

 

I was very excited to see the tarragon growing though it didn't make for much of a photo:

Nor did the creeping jenny:

I think this may be my entry.  The lupine is so small it's dwarfed by the crocus, but I think it almost looks like palm trees at first glance:

 

I found a few things that made me laugh.  One container of carrots that we left in the soil looked like this (that's a rotting carrot):

But the other yielded intact carrots!  I don't think we're going to try and eat them, but it was fun to pull them out:

 

Then it was time to actually plant!  The CT oldtimers tell you to plant your peas on St. Patrick's Day.  However, it's never been even close to warm enough for me to want to be outside on St. Patrick's Day before.  I had to go to the office on Wednesday, so I was a day late planting, but I think within 24 hours still counts.  I opted for 3 different types:

I wondered how long a row of peas I was planting so VPH (who was keeping me company) paced out the row.  He said 15 feet, so about 5 feet of each of the 3 pea varieties went into the 2 inch deep trench 2 inches apart.  (I don't follow most spacing recommendations on seed packages.)  After taking this photo I carefully filled in the trench, but I didn't water because the soil was sort of damp already, the overnight temp was supposed to get close to freezing, rain is in the forecast in a few days, and most importantly, I haven't replaced the broken hose nozzle yet:

 

Moving inside, I like this shot of the forced forsythia branches in the living room, but I'm going to keep trying, and maybe even break out the tripod:

 

The full effect really brightens up the room:

 

This time of year I get the urge to clean and redecorate.  Usually it's because it's not warm enough yet to go outside to clean and redecorate the garden!   I got a lot done this past weekend during the non-stop rain.  First up was hanging some photos in the kitchen.  Do you know how to hang a grouping of frames one on top of the other?  Pick where you want your first frame and hammer in your nail.  Then you're supposed use a string level, but I don't have one, so I grabbed an extra dental floss from the medicine cabinet, popped out the spool/cutting device and slid off the spool of floss.  Then I tied a loop in the floss and slipped it on the nail (important that you don't tie the floss to the nail because it will be a bitch to remove without pulling the nail).  The wax floss will not unroll on its own despite the weight and gravity, so you can just unroll it to the length you need.  Then I used a tape measure to mark 2 more nail holes on the wall behind the string 15 inches apart (your distance will vary depending on the size of your frames and how far apart you want to space them):

And voila -- perfectly straight evenly spaced photos (that dresser doesn't belong there, but we haven't figured out where it's going yet):

And then of course I had to find a home for my honorable mention-winning photo, which actually printed very nicely on my home inkjet printer and gave a lot of color to the living room despite being a winter photo:

To the left side of the above photo you can see an open box on the table.  I have a small problem with bed linens.  I just love nice sheets and a pretty duvet.  So I splurged a little and bought a queen-sized 500 thread count set of sheets, a new duvet, and a 8 towel set (because we really need brown in the new bathroom instead of our old pink towels that matched the pink bathroom).  But I got it all for less than $90, so I'm hardly counting that as shopping at all!

What are your spring cleaning rituals -- inside or out?

Comments

[eliz]

How I remember those shivery Easter photos. The good ones were when my folks took us down to SC for spring break.

Love those lupine shoots! Wow.

[Heather's Garden]

Elizabeth -- Thanks! You actually helped me decide to use that photo for the GGW photo contest.