In Which I Detail My Weekend

Another sunrise photo. I can't seem to help myself these days - the sunrises come up so dramatically against the cloudy mornings it's hard not to race for the camera and exclaim enthusiastically (which is what I tell the teenager when he is scrolling through my iPhoto and saying "Why do you have over 200 shots of the SAME skyline?").

It's also a delight to wake up and see the sunrise coming earlier and earlier. In December we were doing our morning Read Alouds in utter darkness, which was wonderfully atmospheric with Christmas washing up against our literary prow (The Box of Delights, The Tomten, The Dark is Rising), but after Christmas it was just plain bleak. Chilly, bleak, and lit only by the harsh glare of the dining room light. Now we're reading Eagle of the Ninth, punctuated by the light of the sun streaming in and making periodic rainbows through the glass pendants on the windows. It reminds me of those religious record commercials they used to have on the TV when I was little, the ones with the single piercing streak of sunlight, breaking through some deep cloud, with songs like "He Loves You" or "God Is Near" playing in the background in all its exaggerated sentiment. When we were kids we used to scream with laughter at these commercials, because they appealed to the Inner Diva in us. I mentioned these commercials to my kids to see what they'd make of them and they all looked at me blankly, no doubt shocked at how WEIRD television used to be, then Max said "Um, what do you mean by RECORD commercials? You were around when they had RECORDS?"

Then, instead of feeling just plain odd I felt odd AND old.

Another subject for the camera is this cat. He matches the floors so perfectly we tend to stop and exclaim over this as well, as in "WOW! Toffee is the SAME COLOUR as the floors!" We all say the same thing. We all repeat it. Over and over again, with the same note of surprise each time. And I have yet to hear someone - anyone - say "You've said that four billion times already, Mum!"

Does this mean that we are all easily thrilled?
Here he is, in all his winter fatness. I've even blogged about it before but I'm a little ashamed to link the posts. Not too ashamed to tell you but I won't go so far as to actually SHOW you them. Even I have some my limits.

(pick your jaw up off the floor)

Anyhow, I spent my weekend, because it was so warm and sunny, digging in the garden and trying to lure the cat over to where I was working. Yes, the very same cat you see above in the photo. MY cat, I feel compelled to point out. He is, tragically, a cat of VERY little brain. We also think he has issues with context. When we're inside all winter he knows who we are, because he can place us; when we go outside all of a sudden he gets spooked and forgets that we too can be outside in the garden AT THE SAME TIME as him. So he runs away and cowers in the Cat Tunnels at the end of the yard, wondering how these scary imposters could be in the back yard AT THE SAME TIME as the Real People in his house. Sigh.

This is what used to be the Garlic Bed, but because I have turned over a new leaf and am now going to rotate my crops in a serious fashion, it's lost its moniker and is now going to be Just Another Bed. Why am I going to rotate my crops, you ask? I never used to, but that was mostly because we used to move around so much that I never needed to think about the Rotating of Crops. Now that we've actually - gulp - purchased a house AND live in it, I've got to think about such things if I want to avoid exhausted soil and plant diseases. So rotate I will.




After I forked around in the Former Garlic Bed, I repositioned my Fancy Schmancy Hoop House and planted some lettuce seeds inside it. Yes, it IS still cold here, but this is a protected area of the yard and dry enough that the seeds won't rot as they wait for warmer weather.



Then I laid on the ground and took some photos of the miniature irises. They too are so eminently photographic.

These irises are about 6" tall. Tiny little things and so wonderfully blue. I can see though that I am going to have to divide them a bit, because they are squished, and because they are squished they are smaller than usual.



Along with all the sunrise photos in my iPhoto folder I also have a fair number of sunset photos. For obvious reasons.

And thus ends the weekend detailings of Sheila. Hope your weekend was just as enjoyable, although do me a favour: if you don't know what records are, don't ask me to explain...