21 Feb 2010 -- Can Spring be far behind?

Well, today the temperature reached 63 degrees. Last week, we were covered with the white stuff -- the snowiest winter in Kentucky in 35 years. But now, the snow is only evident in small patches now, on the north or east side of hills and buildings where the late morning and early afternoon sun doesn't shine. The back garden this morning was about half covered in snow, and as I write this (2:42 pm), it's all gone.

Last year, we tried growing birdhouse gourds, but only one grew large enough to use. We let it dry all winter outside, then brought it in, scrubbed it off, and today I began working on it. I took the birdhouse gourd outside, ran the extension cord, drilled the drainage and hanging holes, and sawed the 1-1/2 inch diameter hole. After cleaning out the inside of detritus and seeds, Barry spray painted it white -- the preferred color as it stays cooler in the hot sun that way. Now all we have to do is hang it. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it...but this big guy was in the back garden last week. He first tried pecking for bugs on the cement stand of the bird bath but didn't find anything there. Obviously. So he flew over to a stump at the northwest corner of the garden, and evidently hit pay dirt. He must have been there 15 minutes, not more than 30 feet from the house!

Barry dug a bit in the carrot bed, adding potting soil and sand to make the growing medium as light as possible. He's going to be planting spinach there over the next week or so, and by the time the spinach bolts in the heat, it'll be ready for the carrots. K-Mart is closing, so we nearly bought out their supply of fertilizer and potting soil. I've been able to tell how "antsy" he is about getting out in the garden. He checks the upcoming weather 2-3 times a day. The dining table is piled with seed catalogs, and every two or three days, he goes through the supply from last year. He has the mini-greenhouse up, and spinach, nasturtiums, and brussels sprouts are all growing like weeds in it.Won't be long now.

After all the work of digging and cutting and drilling, we went into Danville, to Millennium Park, for a walk. The park is HUGE, has a pond and fountain, 8 ball fields, 2 concession buildings, a children's area, several covered shelters (one was being used for a cook-out), basketball courts, a skateboard park, and what must be miles and miles of paved walking areas. Now I'm tuckered out, and he'll probably be taking a nap -- we're not used to the outdoor exercise, but we really DO need to do that every time we go into Danville.