Garden Therapy

Hello again! I know it's been a while since I've written anything, but we have had....well, let's just say we've had a whirlwind few weeks at our house. Things have settled down, at least a bit, and I feel like I am easing back into my comfortable routine.

Somehow, in the middle of all the craziness, I have managed to keep writing up a storm. I submitted a gigantic (60 page) chapter all about my theoretical perspectives, and am now putting the finishing touches on my "Materials" chapter. I have spent the last few days reviewing my typological scheme and my artifact descriptions, and am currently writing up projectile point descriptions. This will certainly clinch my position as Queen of the Nerds to admit this, but I really like working on and studying artifact descriptions. It makes me feel like a much less jock-like version of one of those people who can rhyme off baseball stats. "Benton Stemmed: 5500-3000 BP; bifacial stem beveling; flattened hexagonal stem cross-section; parallel-oblique flaking." Yeah, I didn't make myself sound any cooler there, did I?

I don't normally mind putting my nose to the grindstone and writing hard on a Saturday, but when that Saturday is the first warm and sunny one in a long, long while, it becomes very difficult to remain focused and motivated! I had a peek at the garden yesterday, and saw that things were beginning to sprout...including the weeds. Well, I finally couldn't take it any more today. I decided, once I had gotten a certain amount of work finished, that I would reward myself with a wee putter in the garden.

Rather than tackle the monstrous amount of work that the flower beds are guaranteed to be, I decided to tackle a much smaller project: the raised vegetable beds at the side of our house. We put a couple in last year to see if we would have any luck with them. They were brilliant, and we're thinking of constructing a couple more for this season.

The raised beds still had the remains of tomato and pepper plants in them from the fall, so I pulled up the tomato cages and yanked all the veggie skeletons out. I cleared out around the strawberry plants (which were unscathed after the winter), and cleaned up the oregano. I think I may need to move that oregano out of the bed, into its own pot, as it seems poised to take over the entire veggie garden! It did quite well for itself last year.

Martin Scorsese, to whom the furry backside in the above photo belongs, was in heaven today while I was out in the garden! I don't think he quite understood the activities in which I was engaging, but he seemed quite convinced that, whatever I was doing, I was doing it purely for his entertainment. He is always a very big "help" when I garden.

He was extra "helpful" as I was trying to take a picture of one of my happy little crocuses. It took a few tries, and a lot of nudging Mr. Helpful out of the way, before I got a shot that was actually in focus! These little beauties make me so happy!

The next job will be to tackle the flower beds. I have some plants (hostas, heucheras, and a black-eyed Susan) that all need to be split this year. And I believe a little reorganization/redesign might be in order. All in good time...

In the meantime, I am (im)patiently awaiting the arrival of spring. That veggie garden needs to get filled up, the porch needs cleaning/pressure washing/painting, the planters need filling, and the garden needs some TLC.

The sun is setting, so back to the artifact descriptions I go.

A Lovely Surprise

I mentioned in an earlier post that we really haven't had much in the way of winter down here in the Midsouth this year. We never have much of a winter, compared to the winters I grew up with, but this has been an exceptionally mild one. Today felt particularly spring-like; the sun was out and the air felt a little "warmish." It was beautiful, and all the critters outside seemed to agree! The birds were chirping, frogs were singing, the bees were buzzing, and the feral cats in the woods....well, let's just say they seemed intent on making a few more feral cats!

The cats were making such a racket out there at one point that I decided to poke my head outside to make sure they weren't messing with Martin and Fred, our outdoor cats who are skittish and obliviously friendly, respectively. Marty was thrilled to have me outside with him. He was positively rumbling as he trotted along beside me while I went in search of the feral critters. (I never did find them, but they were quiet after that, so I assume they went in search of a little more privacy!)

On my way back from the woods, I paused to have a little peek at the garden. Mostly, I wanted to check up on my little daffodils that had budded-up right before the snow and freeze we had last week. (Incidentally, they made it through the freeze quite unscathed and look primed to "pop" any second.) What I hadn't noticed before were the fat buds on my reticulata irises. They caught my eye today when I saw this:

 Aren't they beautiful?! They are such quietly pretty little things -- a spectacular color in a small package -- and a lovely harbinger of spring. I think this was the Universe's way of telling me it is time to weed the garden! I have been quite surprised by how much "green stuff" has remained in the garden over the winter. I really thought my last fall weeding session would have been my last until March, perhaps. I could easily have weeded a few weeks ago, though! Crazy Southern winters. Well, I know what I'll be doing on my next (warm) day off -- can't wait to play in the dirt!