Blocks, Rocks, and Socks

37*, feels like 30*, 67% humidity, SE 9 mph wind, fair

It's supposed to be 53* today later. I plan to take advantage of this nice weather, you can beet on it! I was thinking I should go to the heron rookery, to check out the nests today, as March is the best time to view the nest repairs without the confusion of leaves in the way. But Mr. Hyper, after seeing the pictures of the fun I had last weekend, wants to go with me to see the horses and the trail I had so much fun on. I have no doubt it will be a sloppy trail, with rapid snow melting, but that has never bothered me too much when I wear my boots.

Meanwhile, I've been cruising around my yard crunching through snow to get an idea of what I want to do with the garden this year. Mainly, trying to decided how large I should make the pumpkin patch. I could do a 196 feet block easy, or I could do a lot more but skimp on the soil additives which is NOT what I want to do so I think I'll stick with a 14' by 14' bed and if I need more I can expand as I go I suppose.

Reminder: If you haven't signed up for my Giant Pumpkin Growing Contest, please do so. It will be fun! Just drop me a line in the comment box. No experience necessary!

After I decided on the rough placement of my pumpkin patch, I decided that I am going to have to do something this year, seriously, about a problem area I have. This problem area is right in front of my yard, where the water likes to gather and spill over taking dirt with it into the street. I really like planting flowers there, and I have plans to throw down a mix of blue flowered seeds in the spring which I can't do if everything is going to wash away. So I decided rocks were my answer. I am going to surround the bed with rocks and level the bed out, so that it will no longer fill with water and spill into the gutter. This will involve BUYING round river rocks.

The thought of buying rocks is disturbing to me. When I lived in CA, the land was covered in rocks. Mounds and mounds of round rocks. Buy rocks? NO WAY. They were free for the taking, as many as you could carry in your car at once to build walls and borders in your garden. I don't have rocks here. Just MUD. And so it irks me........I have to buy rocks. Still, I would rather buy rocks then fake human made borders. Those bother me even more for some reason. They just seem so fake.

This means, I will have to dig out some existing plants to fix this bed. A daylily, a lemon balm, and whatever else is in there though the lilacs are on the high side of the bed, I wound need to move those I don't think. But this is MY fault as I didn't take the time to plan anything, I just plopped things in the ground willy nilly with little preparation.

So I'll leave you with some spring socks I am in the middle of making in my spare time....
I love this pattern. Its the only sock pattern I've done even though I have 3 books full of sock patterns. I really should branch out some I know. But they are so easy and comfy and I don't like tall socks anyway. I've always liked short socks or no socks at all!