Good Morning Sprouts!!I may not be the best photographer in the world but sprouts don't exactly smile for you. Here are my wonderful basil and broccoli sprouts growing happily in my window. Every day they eagerly bend toward the warming sun, so I am constantly rotating their container to help them with their posture. This is just one container on my rolling shelf system that occupies the only south facing window in our house. It takes up a good portion of our dining area. Hence, when we have company for dinner, I just roll it into the other room. I acquired the rack off the porch of a house on one of my delivery routes. Part of the joy of delivering mail all over town is all the cool free stuff you find that other people are just throwing out.
(And the obvious fact that I get paid to walk around outside all day!)
My Patiently Waiting Containers.Dinah, the old cat, looks out the window wondering what all the change is about and why there are so many little birds in the yard. I cleaned away years of pine needle and scrub oak debris and threw down wild grass and flower seeds (area not pictured). I thought these would help with erosion on our front sloping yard, what I didn't realize was that little birds have a radar which must go off when seeds hit the ground. I have yet to see any new sprouting but the birds are fattening up! Oh Well. Meanwhile, I have all these fantastic containers awaiting planting. I only bought 4 containers and some soil. The rest of the containers were free along with about 1/3 of the soil... again thanks to customers on my route! One customer needed to thin out her herb garden and invited me to help dig up and transplant some herbs. I received thyme, marjoram, sage, chive, parsley and rhubarb! They are all living and thriving outside. I have basil, broccoli, cilantro, squash, tomatoes and strawberries safely inside. Many more seeds will be sown today - spinach, peas, bush beans, carrots, radishes and lettuces in the canoe a.k.a. "S.S. Side Dish." Jim was kind enough to let me turn his old canoe into a shallow garden. It's had a hole in it for years and he's been threatening to patch it since we met. Instead, he drilled more holes in the bottom for drainage and we have given it a new life. My containers appear sad and empty in the diffused light on this overcast morning, but I can close my eyes and imagine the lush bounty that will soon await harvest.
More Free Stuff!!So after searching for a quality seated garden scooter to comfortably work in my low containers I had given up and purchased a padded garden thing to kneel upon. It seemed all the new scooters are now made of plastic and resemble children's toys. What happened to building quality products? Do we live in such a "disposable" world that nothing is made to last more than a year or two? Alas, another free-bee from a customer on my route! He had this old scooter in his yard ever since last fall. It endured the rain and snow and was covered in dirt and wet leaves. It was just what I had been looking for, so I inquired on where he had gotten it. Then he offered it to me. He stated that he didn't use it and just wanted it out of his yard. I was elated at such a find and took it home that day. Aside from flat tires and dirt, it is in perfect working order. The tractor style seat spins and raises and lowers in height. It's perfect to scoot around my canoe work the soil without working my back.So spring has sprung and sprouts are underway here in Colorado. Most are safe inside the warmth of the house, protected from the sporadic snows that still decorate our yard. Birds are singing and the trees are swaying... the earth is awakening.May your spring be graced by new life!!
Aspen - Golden Retriever 3 yrs. old
Doug - Labrador Retriever 14 mos. old
Together these two will fetch anything... even stuff I didn't throw. This stick was a product of their boredom after I stopped throwing the toy. On Sunday April 19th Jim and I took them to Lemon Reservoir north of Durango. We packed a picnic lunch, a couple of chairs and headed to the lake for a relaxing afternoon in the spring time sun. Aspen is our grand swimmer. Doug swims as well but quickly gives up when he realizes she is going to reach the toy / stick before he will. So while Aspen swims out to the object of focus, Doug waits in the shallows. He watches her and crouches like a tiger as she approaches. When she gets within 10-12 feet, he explodes through the water and attacks her. Sometimes he is successful in taking the toy from her and other times he only succeeds in knocking her under the water. This is really entertaining for us to watch and laugh at; perhaps this is why we don't have television... We have real-a-vision! Unfortunately, I didn't think about getting out the camera until late in the day. So all our pictures have a sun streak effect.
