Even though we've had some snow in the past days, and it is rather cool outside again, I'm all delighted with the garden and how much is blooming there. The day of planting a few tomato plants into nice, large containers in the wintergarden so we can have early tomatoes is also drawing nearer - just a few more days for the small plants to grow before I'll pick the three strongest and biggest ones to go do their thing.

In spirit with the season of growth, I also had some fun sowing a sort-of-surprise seed package. When we were shopping last weekend, we stumbled across this:


It says "kitchen herb seed mix" and on the bottom, "Sparpreis" means something like "budget price". At 29 cents, it really was - and I took it home with me, expecting to find something like a wild mix of seeds inside. Like when somebody would have swept up the seeds fallen down from regular packing and tossed them into a paper bag.

Which is exactly what the contents look like:


Now, if I were really good with seeds, I'd be able to tell which plants might spring from them. I'm hoping there will be parsley among them; probably there'll be chives, and it looks like something from the aniseed family will also be present. Dill would also be nice.

Well, I tossed a generous amount of the seed mix into a pot with earth, and now... I'll wait for the surprise in green to spring up. I'm already having a lot of fun just anticipating the things to come - which, again, proves that I am really easy to amuse.

I'm away for only a few days, and my return is to a garden in bloom - the tulips are open, and there's spots of colour everywhere:

[caption id="attachment_3036" align="alignnone" width="600"] Yellow tulips, and the willow in the background is going like crazy.


[caption id="attachment_3033" align="alignnone" width="640"] That said, the willow fence is going like crazy everywhere now!


[caption id="attachment_3034" align="alignnone" width="640"] More tulips - these were more yellowish once, but they have sort of migrated towards orangey red over the years. There's also hyacinths in blue and dandelion that snuck in (and is allowed to bloom a bit more).


[caption id="attachment_3035" align="alignnone" width="640"] And the peach tree is also flowering - let's see if there will be peaches this year...

There are two kinds of distaff that I carry in my shop: the one made from straight, smooth, modern round dowels, and the kind made from natural wood. Said wood is either hazel or willow, both grown in our own garden.

Which means that I cut wood for distaffs occasionally, and the biggest cutting action is in late winter, when our willow fence gets set back to its basic structure.

In spring, said fence is working hard to make new branches from the latent buds, and of course sprouting from the buds left on last year's growth:


though these get less and less as the fence is getting nearer to completion of the basic structure.

Now, willows are hardy plants and quite resilient, and if you stick the cut willow shoots into the soil, they will usually take root and grow and prosper.

This year, it seems, I will have unusually vital distaffs to sell, trying to grow and prosper too, even though they've been cut weeks ago:


I'm always amazed at the vitality in plain bits of willow wood - and the enormous power that spring has!

We're obviously into spring now, and softly nearing Easter - the flowers in the garden tell me this:

[caption id="attachment_3006" align="alignnone" width="640"] Snowdrops are through - now coming up for their turn: two-leaf squill...


[caption id="attachment_3008" align="alignnone" width="640"] ...viola (and I'm especially happy that there are more of them in the lawn this year)...


[caption id="attachment_3009" align="alignnone" width="640"] ... and you can see the tulips preparing for their part of the show already, too - just beside the white ones whose name I don't remember just now.


I hope the weather during the weekend will be nice enough to enjoy some gardening - there's quite a bit of garden that is in dire need of some attention, and there's seeds waiting to be tossed out!

I've had a slow day today, time to take a few nice photos of things blooming in the garden:

[caption id="attachment_2980" align="alignnone" width="640"] Crocuses...


[caption id="attachment_2979" align="alignnone" width="640"] ... the hellebore...


[caption id="attachment_2978" align="alignnone" width="640"] ... iris...


[caption id="attachment_2977" align="alignnone" width="600"] ...and, of course, the first heralds of spring - Snowdrops!

Thank goodness it's Friday! There's a few more things to write and sort and do, and then it's time for the weekend, which I'm really looking forward to. While I still have things to do, the cat is, ever helpfully, hanging out on my desk, draped across my right forearm. Which means she is wobbling up and down when I am typing (something she comments by purring even louder), which is quite amusing!

She is a very helpful cat anyways. Here's picture proof of her helping me when I was neatening up the fabrics for Bremerhaven:


And yes, these are my scissors under her left hind leg. She's sleeping right on top of them. Or rather - not sleeping, but hanging out, waiting to have her belly rubbed...

As announced in the title, here you go - a gratuitous cat picture:


I'm always amazed at the funny positions that cats sleep in. Sometimes, this furry being starts to move herself over to lie on the other side, but sort of abandons that project half-way and sleeps some more in a sort of contorted S-shape... before at some point waking up enough again to move the rest of the way.

And now I think I need some coffee before I go on spinning!