A Sunny Day in January

An unexpected stretch of sunny January days in Portland is a blessing.  Yesterday the hens free ranged for a few hours (hawks dare not circle while I’m out there with my hoe), the “pop weeds” had germinated but the soil was so damp I could lift them out with little effort, twigs from past wind storms got raked up and I spread wheel barrels of leaf mulch on future vegetable producing rows.  I also gave serious consideration to cutting back the raspberries, but ran out of steam. The crocus were pushing their way through the soil, the garlic showed 6” of green growth, hellebore were in bloom and the daphe odoro and camelias were not far behind. 

January also means lists. It’s a time when I can feel overwhelmed as I walk around and note everything that needs to be done.  The shed is a disaster as is the greenhouse, normally a reflection of a busy fall or a lazy one, depending on your perspective.  I forgot to divide the bearded iris in August (they are very cramped but will have to wait a while), the fruit trees need to be pruned relatively soon, I should sharpen all my hand tools, oh yes, and the shed needs cleaning, did I mention that? The list goes on.  Then there’s the other list, my “projects” list, which includes general improvements involving actual planning and execution over the course of a few days.  Yet the joy gardening brings far outweighs semi-distressing long lists ~ one day at a time as my dad used to say.

Returning to the house with soil-darkened damp knees (kneeling pads are overrated) is the mark of a successful day.  And …. with a football game in the background we finally took down the Christmas tree.  After we zipped our artificial (yes, fake) tree into its sleeve, we heard a distinct scratching noise coming from inside.  Turns out we zipped the incredibly unhappy cat inside (she was curled up at the base in the folds of the bag). I’ll remember that for years to come; so will she!

Joyfully onward ~