Absent Minded Gardening

There are pros and cons to being an absent minded gardener, and today I was witness to both.

Cons:

The over-ordering of seeds.  Every year I order seeds, either forgetting what I had in stock, or forgetting where I left my stock.

Here we see more varieties of lettuce than any one person could really need.

And here we see the seeds the mice got when I forgot them in the garden shed over winter... my bad.

I also end up with a lot of trial and error lessons.  For  instance -- I cut back the rosemary in the fall and it isn't growing back.  With the lavender, however, I cut two back and left two.  The two I cut are growing back, but not the ones I left alone.  Next year I'll cut the lavender and leave the rosemary.

Pros:

There are some benefits to being so forgetful.  Last year I forgot to pull the arugula before it went to seed.  And this year:

I may have an abundance of arugula.  Always a pleasant surprise!

When it comes right down to it it doesn't really matter what I remember or neglect.  Something always grows out there and it's usually something tasty.  If enough of it grows it may even have a positive impact on our grocery bill -- if not, it's at least a few interesting side dishes we wouldn't have otherwise.  And there's always the satisfaction of growing something good in my own back yard.

And let's not forget the sheer joy of getting outside from time to time.  I thought about doing several loads of laundry today, but spent most of the afternoon in the backyard instead.

Look, a pea I planted a few weeks ago!  I can hardly WAIT to shell and eat some raw peas.  Mmmm!

As long as I have the foresight to do a few things right, and the humour to laugh at what I don't, my garden will always be a joy and a success.

Sidenote:  While gardening today I separated some forget-me-nots, a few lilac cuttings and some alliums.  Anyone want them?

A Present

I have been wanting a certain knitting accessory for awhile now, and while ogling cute puppies on kijiji the other day, I decided to run a search and see if I could find a used one locally.  I found one!!  And it was cheap!  And since my birthday is only a few weeks away, I decided it was a must-have.  


Ladies and gentlemen,
My yarn ball winder:





It helps me turn a skein of yarn into a nice, neat ball, or "cake". This 
is necessary because knitting from a skein is virtually impossible.  
Your yarn tangles up, and it's just generally a bad scene. I've been 
hand-winding my own balls (more balls than cakes -- I don't have 
great technique), but it takes about an hour to do just one. With my
new toy I can do it in a few minutes. I LOVE it!!

In other news, I am an itchy beast all of a sudden.  Wednesday night when I was getting ready for bed, I complained to Jason that one of our pets must have fleas because I was covered in itchy bites (I react pretty strongly to both fleas and mosquitos).  He took one look and said, "Nope, you've got HIVES!"


Egad, I've never had hives before and now I'm on hive-tastic day three.  I likely should have had my doc check me out today, but I was busy (hey, I've got a life you know!).  If they're still around by Monday I'll give him a call.  They were at their worst last night -- my hands were so swollen I was unable to continue my video game, and knitting would have been out of the question.  I think I even had one under my thumb nail!


As for what might have caused my plight, I'm absolutely dumbfounded.  The only thing I can think of is that I must have a new Spring/pollen/spore-type allergy, as I've heard Spring allergies are supposed to be quite severe this year.


This experience does give me a new appreciation for how Jason must feel when he gets hives.  His hives are not caused by an allergy and can last anywhere from a few months to more than a year.  It's ridiculous, and I can only imagine how frustrated and uncomfortable he must be.


My itchies are less prominent today, and I might be able to do some knitting.  My sweater is coming along nicely, but I am itching (har-har) to take it off the needles and try it on!