Green Thumb

Spring began right on time this year: March 21 with the Vernal Equinox. It's been raining all week, hard heavy rains, and there's just the smell of green in the air.

The Doctor is on-call this weekend, so I'm home alone. There is only so much wallowing in my own self-pity that I can handle, so I decided to get out this weekend. My Saturday morning rituals include watching Thursday night ABC shows online and normally, I don't like to be interrupted during this sacred TV time. But when my phone rang at 11, I went ahead and took the call. Turns out it was an invitation for waffles and wine, which I happily accepted.

These particular friends (a doc and her husband) are the type of people I aspire to be. They don't own a television. Music of all types is always playing on their iPod. They regularly have parties and social gatherings. We do game nights with them, both cards and the Wii. Basically, they are just neat people. Intellectual, artistic and have "interests" that are actually interesting.

One of these interests is gardening. I grew up with a grandmother who has a green thumb extraordinaire and have fond memories of harvesting and pickling cucumbers and weeding flower beds with her. So when Female Half asked if I wanted to go to the flower nursery, I jumped on the chance.

I'm going to take advantage of having a real yard, with clearly defined garden beds. Our entire fence is lined with empty lomey beds, just waiting to be filled with color and green. The rain has permeated the soil and it is damp and fertile looking. So at the nursery I purchased some calla lily bulbs; wildflowe and morning glory seeds; an herb garden; lavender plants; and pea, peppers, carrot, squash, cucumber and romaine lettuce seeds. I also got some succulents and transplanted them into hangers. They're now hanging over our large window.

I'm so excited about this. I have the little pods to start the veg in while it's still a little chilly and I'll transplant the seedlings over to the flower beds once it gets a tad warmer.

It's nice to have something to occupy these long weekends!