Happy Groundhog's Day! and BFF

Winter Isn't ALL Bad: Christmas birding in Gloucester

It's the middle of winter. It's all downhill from here until Spring, no matter what Punxsutawney Phil says.

Staten Island Chuck in 2009

 The days are getting longer. For the past few years in upstate New York, with the guaranteed snow cover, I always looked forward to February because the sun was making a comeback, which turned the white ground into a massive full-spectrum OTT light. It's a tiny bit different here in central Michigan. The brown everywhere sucks up the new sun. But I'm still trained to love February for its shift toward the light.

I've been looking for a way to celebrate midwinter. My Christmas/ winter solstice lights will come down. Chris suggested tea and baked goods and some reading on the couch. Sounds good, but it's also exactly what we've been doing for the past several weeks. I'm also planning to end my running hiatus. Then, I stumbled on this:

Blog Free February (BFF)

The gist is get off the internet and go write, paint, draw, create. For every 20 minutes you write or otherwise create, you get ONE minute for your blog, surfing, or social networks. I've been meaning to do a lot more creating than I have been doing. In a way I feel like Laurie Halse Anderson is playing a form of that "Okay, Let's See Who Can Be Quiet the Longest" game with us so that she can take a break. But I'm all for it. I need a break from the digital rabbit hole that is the internet.

I'd like to do more actual writing, drawing, painting, and reading. So, while I'll be doing some seed starting and planning, February seems like a decent enough time to take a break from garden blogging, internet surfing, and other nonsense (facebook and hulu for example). Unfortunately, I still have to get up at 5 a.m. and search for sub jobs on Jobulator (uhgh, don't get me started).

So, my goal? I'll come back in March with a load of seed starting adventures and garden plans to report. I also want to think about why I'm doing this blog thing. Finally, I've got way too many creative itches to scratch right now. I need to focus. 

See you in March.

Good News, Bad News

Ugly carrots, but tasty

Little symmetrical green rows of hope

Candy roaster winter squash, looking like King of the Garden

All of the sweet pepper plants are loaded with fruits. I've picked four or five green ones to lighten the load on each plant. These sweet babies should turn red and make us all very, very happy.

This is a green zebra tomato, getting its stripes!

The bad news is that the groundhog is climbing over the fence (I've watched it) and eating the plants that are in their prime. She won't touch the towers of bolted lettuce. She doesn't munch on the bolting beet greens. She picks the plants that I have my eye on... it's like she can read my mind. These broccoli plants were my pride and joy for a week or two. I guarded the little seedlings. I congratulated myself on waiting until after the June heat-spell to plant them. They were thriving in our cool July weather. There's not much I can do other than shoot the groundhog. I don't want to shoot the groundhog because 1) I don't own this property and 2) It's too late to save the broccoli anyway. I might try the live trap, but I'll bet the skunk will find it first. Maybe something's wrong with me, though, because I've got some kind of zen thing going on with this groundhog right now.

The groundhog likes the carrot tops, too. The soil here is just not great. Because this is my first year in this garden, there are plenty of rocks (and marbles and broken flower pots and plastic dinosaurs) that need picking out. The soil needs more organic matter. And I'm not sure about the pH, but maybe these carrots don't love alkaline soils. It took me two years to create fabulous, carrot-loving soil in NY. The kind of soil that you can reach your hand into and bury it up to your elbow. Carrots are picky.