Grey, [Gray] days

Pile of baby bunnies

I wish I could proclaim "spring has sprung!" like some of my twitter followers, but the best I can do is "surely winter can't last forever, right?!"  I am clinging to the small things like the time changing and being able to do a few extra chores in the evening, baby bunnies, an occasional sunny day when the temperature hovers around freezing instead of twenty below, and the sound of the woodpeckers that have started to return. The signs are subtle but they are there if you look for them.

I have a lot of outdoor projects and plans but I am waiting until the weather turns warmer,even a little. It isn't that I couldn't build a window box right now outside but when the weather gets nice I will enjoy it. I could go fix the flapping plastic that mostly blew off of one of my hoop houses in the last big storm, but lately it is all I can do, to do just the necessary chores, and that is it. There are some days I spend all day outside doing project after project only stopping to eat and collapse in blissful exhaustion at the end of the day, but not today.Right now I am feeding, watering and cleaning animals, shovelling snow and hauling wood. I am tired of waking up with a slightly chilled head, cold feet, dull hair and chapped skin.

Okay, okay, it will get better, right? I am trying to do some little "fix-ups" on the house and get it ready to sell and last week I was able to work steadily but today it is cold and grey and all I want to do is be like my dog and plant my snout on the warm hearth and soak up the heat. I drink a cup of coffee and plod along. Shave down  the drawer that scrapes the front of the cupboard next to it, then re-mount the linen closet door, again. I would love to know (but not enough to type it into a google search) who invented those crappy sliding, bi-fold doors that are always popping off. My new mission in life is to find better ones. Maybe I will re-use the old doors but put them on hinges instead of sliding mounts.

I did an experiment and tried planting some seven year old  Roma tomato seeds to see if they would germinate  and how well they would grow. I couldn't stand the idea of throwing out perfectly good seeds and I always wonder "will they still grow?" I have read all kinds of elaborate ways to test whether old seeds are viable but the methods always seem more complicated than simply throwing them in a flat with some dirt and seeing what happens unless you are planting an acre of corn or something.

Tomato seedling enjoying ten hours of daylight. It isn't the only one!

About half have come up. I planted a sweet potato and it is growing roots and has it's first leaves. I am currently trying to decide what to plant it in until I can plant it outside. I am thinking of using a burlap sac. I have also started some flowers. I spend too much time moving them to and fro from window sill to beside the wood stove at night when the window becomes chilly. At least it feels like a tiny bit of gardening while I wait for the real garden to grow. I am still growing sprouts for sandwiches. I start new ones about once or twice a week and am grateful to have something fresh and green to eat because the last spinach that I bought from the store went bad two days after I brought it home.

Thankfully we have been having lots of company lately and that sure helps break up the grey. Then I get to spend leisurely suppers talking and laughing, sipping some wine, playing board games and lounging by the fire. There is just something so comforting knowing the house is full of people, all cozy and happy. After all, isn't that what winter is for?