The broccoli Is blooming, the birds are flying and the squirrels are running

While admiring the tiny little birds in my front garden from my living room window this morning I noticed yellow flowers blooming from the broccoli. I pointed them out to my daughter who was kneeling next to me on the sofa also watching the tiny birds fly into the garden. After a few seconds some more tiny birds flew into the garden and then two more in the yard, all of them pecking at the dirt. Unfortunately, my neighbor's (the one to the left of my house) cats noticed them too and they came quickly after the birds, but the birds flew away just in time.

After that I went about cleaning. While washing the dishes I noticed a few more tiny birds in the tall bushes. I found myself wish I could go outside quite enough to take a picture of the birds, but as soon as I open a door to step outside they fly away and taking a picture through a glass window never comes out well. In the tree in the far left corner of my backyard there were two fuzzy tails quickly tangling and untangling together. I was sure these were squirrels, but before I could see their cute little faces my dog shoots out running from the close right corner of the yard towards the fence. I see a squirrel jump up off the fence and back onto it, I think...it happened so fast I couldn't tell what happened but as my dog keeps chasing the squirrel, jumping and hitting his top paws on the fence so that the entire fences looks like it will fall over, the squirrel leaps off the fence onto my neighbor's (the one behind) my house) shed roof. He runs across the roof and then flies to the tree in the center of my neighbor's backyard.

Those tiny little creatures can really move quickly. My dog didn't even have a chance. In all these years I don't think he has ever caught one. As for the birds he usually let's them rome freely about the yard, most of the time. However, my neighbor's dog and cats have caught their share of birds.

Right now it in the middle of the afternoon the day is bright and beautiful. I'm not even sure what I am doing inside. I will have to take advantage of the day as soon as my girls get home. I'm sure they will want to play with their neighbor and friend J.  In the mean time I'll do what I always do. I will hold on to my toddler as I carefully inspect my organic garden and then I'll let him run around the  yard.


By the way I'm taking advantage of my garden and using the picture I take  at my Zazzle Store.

My Roses

The potatoes are in their temporary pots. I used empty cardboard oatmeal containers. They were the perfect size. I placed one potato in each yesterday afternoon after weeding my garden for the first time in about a month. I had to take advantage of the sun and the warmth. I knew it wouldn't last, but it was enough to give me a chance to get in my garden and see what survived the freeze and what didn't. I was amazed at how resiliant many of the plants are. There are green healthy leaves and stems growing everywhere and my roses....my roses will bloom lovely this year.

Organic Gourmet Flavored Tortillas Made in LA by Tumaro's | Really Natural - ReallyNatural.com

Just the other I was wishing for healthier or at least more eco-friendly tortillas, and today I came across this information: Organic Gourmet Flavored Tortillas Made in LA by Tumaro's | Really Natural - ReallyNatural.com. I haven't had a chance to try these yet, but I'm happy that I'm not the only one thinking about these sort of things.

The Seed Are In

My mission this weekend was to complete several projects. Mission accomplished. My most proud accomplishment this weekend was turning  newspaper and toilet paper rolls into seedling pots and then filling them with dirt. My daughter's helped me with this project. I'm sorry to say it didn't even cross my mind to take a picture of my daugther's hands and forearms gloved in dirt. She kept asking to wash her hands to wash the dirt off but she couldn't keep herself from putting her hands back in the dirt. Funny child now, not so funny at the time. My oldest daughter was the one that rolled the newspaper up. She did it with such ease I had to reconsider whether I should allow her to do more of the things she wants to do on her own more often. Maybe she is more capable than I gave her credit for.

The seeds in the pots are: organic sunflower seeds and soybeans we bought at Home Depot this weekend and then grape seeds and poblano pepper seed from the foods we bought at the grocery store. I've read it's not a good idea to do this because you really don't know the farming practice behind the food, but right now, I'm really trying to be frugal so I'll take what I can get for free.  I will be planting more seeds from foods from the CSA I saved and dried up a few months ago as soon as I find them.

The Moon, The Leaves and The EarthWorms

The moon last night was absolutely beautiful. I only wish I knew how to use my camera to capture such an amazing sight. I also wish I knew when the cold would stop. I know! I know! I'm a sissy. Can you imagine if I lived up North? How would I survive the cold? I assumed I couldn't but I've been told it's a different kind of cold up north, it's a dry cold compared to here. Dry cold, wet cold..... I don't care. I just want it to go away. I want the spring warmth to and the sunlight to warm up the day and night to about 75 degrees for weeks and weeks. I want to see flowers and a rainbow of colors all over the place. I want to hear the bird chirping and the leaves rustling at my window in the mornings.  I want to hear kids playing ball and riding bikes on the street. I want to go out into my garden and put my hands deep into the  dirt. I want to feel earth, roots and earthworms between my fingers. I want to watch seedling mature into flowers. I want to smell roses, magnolias, rosemary, basil...... I want....Spring. Why does Winter and Summer feel so long, but Spring and Fall feel so short.