Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Weather for Ducks

Another grey day, and the rain continues. I have spent the last day or two ironing the kinks out of the new high speed connection to the web and working booted and poncho clad in the wetness to prepare garden plots for the veggies, herbs and flowers which will be tucked lovingly into place this weekend.

A happy thing, this soggy pottering about in the garden, and another happy thing in that photos upload in the twinkling of an eye, and my web connection doesn't expire without warning when I am in the middle of doing something online. Floating somewhere "out there" in cyber space limbo are whole flotillas of aimlessly drifting half-finished messages which slipped their moorings when my connection to the web embraced the void unexpectedly - I have quite lost count of the number of them, and there have been times when my vocabulary was absolutely appalling. I owe all of you at least one message, and more likely four or five or even six.

Local gardening wisdom enshrines the belief that one should never plant anything before the third weekend in May, and after one or two seasons in which we planted the garden earlier and lost every single plant to frost, this year, we are heeding the admonition to wait. Heirloom tomatoes, peppers, beans, culinary and medicinal herbs are all lined up in their flats in the summer kitchen and growing more wan and leggy by the minute - they long for their fertile new homes, and we long to be out there with them, crooning little growing songs and keeping their places tidy.

How did I ever manage to survive on dial-up?

2 comments:

Marcie said...

Cate, We usually don't plant until the first weekend in June. I get eager though, and put in spinach, peas, and lettuces much earlier than that. I hope you will have gardening photos to share. I have so enjoyed all of your photographs this spring. You have added another element to my enjoyment of this tender season. Along with you, I have walked soft-footed through an Ontario springtime, something I've never done before. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Cate there are so many things I love about this post!

I have a propensity for geese and ducks and swans...ok, anything with feathers! No matter if I live in a booming metropolis or a boring suburb, there are always one or two of these floating lovelies to feed! Aria has become quite conditions to perk up when I tell her that we're going to feed the birds and of course, I usually have to set aside some nibbles for her lest she eat the birds!

Growing veggies and herbs...I wish for a polluted-free green space to do just that! After I took the medicinal herbal course, I wanted nothing more than to grow all the herbs that would nurture my families bodies...but I'll have to continue to depend on the local apothocary instead. There is a organic herbal farm north of us (Rictors) that I am biting at the chomp to visit and sample this summer...with hopes that I can bring some home to grow inside our sunny windows. We'll see...

Puttering in the garden...I hardly remember what that is like, always having to keep one eye on my energetic, curious toddler! I can't WAIT until she old enough to "help mommy"...

Something about this post makes me want to tell you that by far this is one of my faves! Thank you Cate!!

Lil