Gearing Up for Spring

Spring is just around the corner! March 20th to be exact. Quite a bit has happened since my last post: I got married, received the cutest chocolate lab from my aunt and uncle and named her Izzy, I planted a huge vegetable garden for the first time in my life and was overwhelmed by tomatoes, Peter and I traveled back up to Drummond and over to his family's cabin on the Fox River, I was promoted to varsity volleyball coach at the local high school, we spent our first Christmas together as a married couple, and now am in the midst of winding down in the 8th grade volleyball season. I also just finished coaching a 16 year old club team, and am in the middle of leading a volleyball clinic for 5th and 6th graders. Whew! I opted to pass on coaching the spring session for club. Summer camps will be here before we know it, and I think I need a little break. I have been coaching nonstop since August.

With this break, I have big plans. Who knows if I will get it all done, but I am surely going to shoot for it! This year with the vegetable garden, I do not think I will need 18 tomato plants. Maybe half. We are almost out of salsa, and I probably used and gave away about half. Unfortunately, a lot of it went to waste. Also, I do not think 48 pepper plants are necessary. What was I thinking?!?! That they would yield 2-4 peppers per plant? I need to space some of the crop out too, last year we had a ton of romaine all at once. Two people cannot possibly go through that much salad in three weeks. I have plans for more of a variety, spacing crop out better, and adding more flowers.

My big project for flowers this year is to rip up some of the blackberry bushes in our back yard and make a garden/patio. I am on the hunt for lots of discarded items I can integrate into the scene I envision. Things like wrought iron, ceramic, and steel and glass with interesting shapes and colors. I have a hunch my grandparents (being post Great Depression era, and who save everything) have quite the assortment of collectibles back over the hill at their house. I am so excited to ask them about using some of them. It would be especially neat to use the ones with history- things my mom and aunts and uncles played with and so forth. As for flowers, I see different varieties of tulips, daffodils, irises, hyacinths, peonies, roses, hydrangeas, and boxes for annuals. I planted daffodil and iris bulbs along the driveway and the edge of the yard. Hopefully I did it right, I am really looking forward to seeing them.

Eventually we plan to put in a sauna and a pond outside our bedroom window. My aunt and uncle have a small pond with a fountain, and it is so serene and soothing. I remember staying over at their house and hearing that as I fall asleep in my cousin's room. I felt like I was back on Drummond and taking in the beauty of the sound of the water hitting the rocks, and the breeze gently blowing through the cedar trees that released such a calming and carefree scent.

The sauna would be in honor of the Finnish, of course. It is also such a relaxing and restoring experience. Someday, I would like to make sauna soap. Whether it would be for selling purposes, I do not know. But I do appreciate the effort and drive of those who take on the challenge of crafting items with their hands.