It's still cold and we still have snow today. I keep hoping and praying I will wake up to +10, sunshine and rapidly melting snow. It doesn't happen. I have stopped checking the weather report on the Wetter Network as they rarely get it right. After all, what do you expect from a company that is thousands of miles away.
I am still in waiting. Waiting for my surgery that is scheduled for the 6th of February. I went to get bloodwork done last Friday only to discover that I was supposed to have done a 10 hour fast prior to it. Doctor never mentioned anything about fasting when he handed me the lab form, sigh. So, now I go tomorrow at the crack of dawn to avoid having a 2 hour wait in the tiny lab waiting room. Then Tuesday it is off to St. Joseph's in Comox to see the Pre-Admition nurse. Then Wednesday more tests and Thursday, if I am not too tired, up early to get my hair cut really, really short so I don't have to worry about it while I am recuperating. I still haven't been out to get groceries, so sometime this week will have to do that.
I HATE WAITING!
I know I had no control over getting sick last November and missing out on having my surgery then. Things happen for a reason and our very cold, very snowy weather was the reason. But, there is still that small part of me that says I would have been 2 months post surgery, all through with physio and back to driving and walking again if I hadn't gotten sick. I don't dwell on it. No point.
But still.
I have been browsing this years seed catalogues both online and those I could get through the mail. I see so many flowers and vegetables I want to try, but I have to be realistic. I don't have the space in the garden yard. Well, I do, but, what I mean is, I have the garden boat, lots and lots and lots of black pots, and the big stock waterer that Richard is going to put in the yard and fill with dirt for me, when it warms up. I have so many seeds already that need to be planted that it's silly to think about buying more. Yet, you know, I will buy some more. Just a few.
There are some really interesting flower seeds one can buy. I am amazed by the difference in price from catalogue to catalogue. And the number of seeds per packet for those prices. Take for instance Calendula, one of my favorite annuals. West Coast Seeds - a lower mainland BC company - has 120 seeds per gram and one gram costs $2.79 cdn. Lindenburg Seeds from Brandon, Manitoba, has 50 to 100 seeds per packet and a packet is $1.25 cdn. Vesey Seeds from PEI has 100 seeds for $1.95 cdn, while William Dam Seeds from Ontario sells them for $1.75 cdn for 100 to 200 seeds. And South of the border in Greenwood South Carolina, is Park Seeds - a favorite of mine - which sells them for 100 seeds for $1.45 US if you purchase it as a culinary herb seed (which in reality it is) or 50 seeds for $1.50 to $1.95 US for annual flowers, depending on variety.
Bear in mind, Calendula is exceedingly easy to grow, self-seeds in warmer climates, blooms and blooms and blooms, is cold tolerant, is good in salads or teas or in the bathwater. I use it to make a quick and easy healing salve that works good for cold sores if you are prone to them - thank goodness I am not. My point is, why such a variation in price and amount of seeds?
I did save some seeds over from last year. Dill, Calendula, Scarlet Runner Beans and other assorted dried beans from my Soup Mix I planted. Abutilon, also known as Flowering Maple. Poppy seeds. Coreopsis. Zinnias. I only hope they will germinate and grow. You know of course that I will be haunting the nursery departments at Walmart and Canadian Tire as soon as the spring plants come in for my petunias, pansies and geraniums. And I will be at Naesgaard's and Colyn's as soon as I can. Oh and in the late summer, Canadian Tire puts all it's remaining bedding plants on sale and I get such great deals. I mean, 25 cents a 4" pot. How can I resist!
Last fall, as we were moving as many of my plant pots into the back porch as we could, I accidentally broke off a piece of a geranium. Anyone who grows geraniums on a regular basis knows that you can just stick the broken branch in a jar of water and it will root, thereby starting a new plant for you. This I did. I set it out in the pantry beside the window near the sink and every so often added fresh water to it. The geranium piece remained alive, even through all the bitter cold weather. Even though it was beside that very cold window.
Last week I happened to notice that the silly piece of geranium, had blossom buds coming. This week, behold...two of them have opened to show lovely white blossoms with red anthers on the end of the white stamens. In all this cold and snow, a promise of Spring.
I'll take it.
I am still in waiting. Waiting for my surgery that is scheduled for the 6th of February. I went to get bloodwork done last Friday only to discover that I was supposed to have done a 10 hour fast prior to it. Doctor never mentioned anything about fasting when he handed me the lab form, sigh. So, now I go tomorrow at the crack of dawn to avoid having a 2 hour wait in the tiny lab waiting room. Then Tuesday it is off to St. Joseph's in Comox to see the Pre-Admition nurse. Then Wednesday more tests and Thursday, if I am not too tired, up early to get my hair cut really, really short so I don't have to worry about it while I am recuperating. I still haven't been out to get groceries, so sometime this week will have to do that.
I HATE WAITING!
I know I had no control over getting sick last November and missing out on having my surgery then. Things happen for a reason and our very cold, very snowy weather was the reason. But, there is still that small part of me that says I would have been 2 months post surgery, all through with physio and back to driving and walking again if I hadn't gotten sick. I don't dwell on it. No point.
But still.
I have been browsing this years seed catalogues both online and those I could get through the mail. I see so many flowers and vegetables I want to try, but I have to be realistic. I don't have the space in the garden yard. Well, I do, but, what I mean is, I have the garden boat, lots and lots and lots of black pots, and the big stock waterer that Richard is going to put in the yard and fill with dirt for me, when it warms up. I have so many seeds already that need to be planted that it's silly to think about buying more. Yet, you know, I will buy some more. Just a few.
There are some really interesting flower seeds one can buy. I am amazed by the difference in price from catalogue to catalogue. And the number of seeds per packet for those prices. Take for instance Calendula, one of my favorite annuals. West Coast Seeds - a lower mainland BC company - has 120 seeds per gram and one gram costs $2.79 cdn. Lindenburg Seeds from Brandon, Manitoba, has 50 to 100 seeds per packet and a packet is $1.25 cdn. Vesey Seeds from PEI has 100 seeds for $1.95 cdn, while William Dam Seeds from Ontario sells them for $1.75 cdn for 100 to 200 seeds. And South of the border in Greenwood South Carolina, is Park Seeds - a favorite of mine - which sells them for 100 seeds for $1.45 US if you purchase it as a culinary herb seed (which in reality it is) or 50 seeds for $1.50 to $1.95 US for annual flowers, depending on variety.
Bear in mind, Calendula is exceedingly easy to grow, self-seeds in warmer climates, blooms and blooms and blooms, is cold tolerant, is good in salads or teas or in the bathwater. I use it to make a quick and easy healing salve that works good for cold sores if you are prone to them - thank goodness I am not. My point is, why such a variation in price and amount of seeds?
I did save some seeds over from last year. Dill, Calendula, Scarlet Runner Beans and other assorted dried beans from my Soup Mix I planted. Abutilon, also known as Flowering Maple. Poppy seeds. Coreopsis. Zinnias. I only hope they will germinate and grow. You know of course that I will be haunting the nursery departments at Walmart and Canadian Tire as soon as the spring plants come in for my petunias, pansies and geraniums. And I will be at Naesgaard's and Colyn's as soon as I can. Oh and in the late summer, Canadian Tire puts all it's remaining bedding plants on sale and I get such great deals. I mean, 25 cents a 4" pot. How can I resist!
Last fall, as we were moving as many of my plant pots into the back porch as we could, I accidentally broke off a piece of a geranium. Anyone who grows geraniums on a regular basis knows that you can just stick the broken branch in a jar of water and it will root, thereby starting a new plant for you. This I did. I set it out in the pantry beside the window near the sink and every so often added fresh water to it. The geranium piece remained alive, even through all the bitter cold weather. Even though it was beside that very cold window.
Last week I happened to notice that the silly piece of geranium, had blossom buds coming. This week, behold...two of them have opened to show lovely white blossoms with red anthers on the end of the white stamens. In all this cold and snow, a promise of Spring.
I'll take it.
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