Springing

There's something in the air these days, and it isn't freezing rain. There has been a shift in light and smell that makes me think that winter's finally on its way out, and spring is forcing its way in. The road is snow-less, and last night when I got home I found something in my bed that I haven't seen in about 5 months: mud. Apparently Rosie found the only mud she could roll in, and rolled in it.

This weekend I will be starting my seeds. I haven't yet made the final decision as to what I'm going to start, because every year I get tempted by things that I should know won't work out (red peppers, leeks, eggplants). This year I am going to focus on things we'll use, like tomatoes, several varieties of basil, squash, and maybe cucumbers. At the land, I intend to plant things like sweet potatoes and large squash, and just let 'em go crazy (it's all sand up there, with a nice layer of black earth on top) and hope to collect them sometime before or after I give birth in August. I already have garlic, rhubarb, blueberries and strawberries (for what it's worth) on the go in the garden, but they will all need a bit of TLC come spring. I will do normal potatoes in the bin once again, but I think I'll forget about onions this year – my soil was too heavy last year and it was so wet, and none of them got larger than a kumquat. I will once again have to dump in a load of topsoil, some peat moss, and some compost to mitigate the clay, which dominates by end of year.

So this weekend, I am going to start my tomatoes and basil. It's too early to do squash yet – they get pretty big pretty fast and it's almost better to just put them directly into the ground – but I need to do the tomatoes properly because every year they get all long and stringy. I want chubby fuzzy plants this year.

Speaking of chubby, in the best possible way, my cousin had her baby on Monday. She weighs 10 lbs 1oz so welcome to you, Azalea! Hope you like gardening with a name like that! Another sign of spring has been that babies and pregnant ladies are popping up all over the place. I myself have started to pop a wee bit – I no longer just look like I ate a big dinner. My tummy protrudes ever so slightly and it's as hard as a rock. Had a Doctor's appointment last week, and heard the wee lad/lady's heartbeat (135 bpm), so all is still well in womb-land. I am now nearing 17 weeks. I have an ultrasound March 24 and then on April 15 I get to start going to the OB-Gyn at the hospital where I will eventually give birth, instead of to my family doctor.

Another sign of spring: work's being done back at the homestead. I have reserved our lovely handyman Stuart for the week of April 18 to finally come and finish the siding on our house. He works super-fast and is cheerful and reasonably-priced so I am pretty excited. After that, we'll start moving the furniture around and getting ready for baby. Also happening in April, hubby's going to build us a dock up at our land, so I will have somewhere to lounge my beluga belly this summer. I look forward to rolling off of that dock when the sun gets too hot to handle. Too bad I can't drink beer. I wonder if I will fit into the bathroom of our trailer come late July…