The time change and the unseasonably warm weather coaxes me like an adventurer searching for an ancient treasure. Tuesday I washed out one of the window boxes, filled it with new potting soil, and planted half with oregano vulgare and the other half with Genovese basil seeds and set the box in the direct sunlight outside of the kitchen window. This week all the house plants are playing in the dappled sun and swaying in the soft breezes. Tomato plants are hardening off on the porch during the day but coming back in at night. Overnight temps range from 45 to 50 degrees.
Yesterday Cliff moved the stack of winter firewood from the back porch down to the wood pile near the shed. We still could get the "blackberry winter" snow during the first week of April but it will be very short-lived. Average weather for April is sunny and 70's. The garden hasn't been tilled yet. We have a farmer friend who will drive his tractor out Hedden Road and up our gravel road to till the garden as soon as he feels the clay has dried enough to be worked.
I've been checking the reported hummingbird site online to follow their migration north. As of yesterday, sightings were reported in Huntsville, AL and Moutrie, GA. My feeders are squeaky clean and ready to be hung. As a matter of fact, I made up a batch of my nectar yesterday and hung one of the feeders on the back porch just in case a rogue hummer needed sustenance on its way north. With this early warm weather, the Cleveland Pears, daffodils, sourwoods, and other bloomers are producing earlier so the hummer migration may be affected, too. (Confession: I rarely use affect/effect in my writing. Have a mental block about these two words. Esp. difficult to confess, being a teacher, having taught this to confused students, and I still review the correct usage before typing the word. Yikes! Hope I just used it correctly.)
Amish paste and Thessaloniki tomatoes
Yesterday Cliff moved the stack of winter firewood from the back porch down to the wood pile near the shed. We still could get the "blackberry winter" snow during the first week of April but it will be very short-lived. Average weather for April is sunny and 70's. The garden hasn't been tilled yet. We have a farmer friend who will drive his tractor out Hedden Road and up our gravel road to till the garden as soon as he feels the clay has dried enough to be worked.
I've been checking the reported hummingbird site online to follow their migration north. As of yesterday, sightings were reported in Huntsville, AL and Moutrie, GA. My feeders are squeaky clean and ready to be hung. As a matter of fact, I made up a batch of my nectar yesterday and hung one of the feeders on the back porch just in case a rogue hummer needed sustenance on its way north. With this early warm weather, the Cleveland Pears, daffodils, sourwoods, and other bloomers are producing earlier so the hummer migration may be affected, too. (Confession: I rarely use affect/effect in my writing. Have a mental block about these two words. Esp. difficult to confess, being a teacher, having taught this to confused students, and I still review the correct usage before typing the word. Yikes! Hope I just used it correctly.)
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