According to the weather channel, January 23rd marked the middle of winter. There are now fewer winter days ahead of us than behind us! I know some will be counting down to Spring, but I'm still enjoying the (relative) down time this season brings. In the hot, dog days to come this summer I'll look back fondly at this cold but pretty season.
But it's not totally dormant here. Outside there are daffs pushing up even now. Inside, down in the basement, things are sprouting, perfuming the air with that lovely blend of potting mix and green things.
Another activity - seed shopping. This year I've found 2 new places to order from. One is for vegetables (Pinetree Garden Seeds) and one for flowers (Specialty Flower Seeds).
I learned of Pinetree from Glenda's blog, while Specialty Flower is a site I stumbled upon during an intense search for new agastache varieties for the bee ring bed. Meanwhile, Tammy over at Casa Mariposa sent me a dandy link to a good site with pollinator info and plant listings.
So as you can see things haven't stopped, only taken a change of pace.
I finally found a bag of dried limas (not the bitty baby limas, but these big sweeties) and made ham and lima bean soup (heavy on the kale).
Ah, doesn't get much better than this!
Meanwhile - out on the deck...
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| *sniff* *sniff* Do I smell...soup??? |
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(Use links on top of sidebar to view my other garden pages.)
(Use links on top of sidebar to view my other garden pages.)
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Another hello to the visitor from Scotland. I'm glad you are enjoying all the historical posts! Would love a comment on a current post. Stop and say HI when you get to 2014. :-D
So nice to find someone else embracing Winter!
ReplyDeleteI kinda like "winter" too, perhaps because I don't have the "real" winter :-)
ReplyDeleteThat soup looks delicious, Kris. Bon appetite.
Oh, and did you make those snow figures on the deck? Bet it was fun.
Enjoy your winter while it lasts.
Carolyn, I'm with you there!
ReplyDeleteHa Xuan, Yes I made the little snow dog and his boy. But since then it's been snowing steadily and both are starting to disappear...
That soup does look good. I like the snow men.
ReplyDeleteYou made snowmen! I'm proud of you. I haven't done that a very long time, like maybe 35 years! This year we haven't had enough snow.
ReplyDeleteThe soup looks wonderful.....I have dried butter beans and ham pieces...I believe I will give that a try in a few days.
We will be almost summer-like here today before another downturn in temperature.
I am still browsing that new flower website...I had about 20 pks listed before I got back to the reality of "cutting back" this year. Thanks for sending it to me.
Hi Mee... It was wonderfully hearty!
ReplyDeleteGlenda - I'm still putting stuff in my cart on the flower site. The selection (and prices) are very seductive! LOL I'm going to have lots of new bee forage blooms this year. YAY