Happy Spring...

Happy first day of spring... expect 8-12" of snow. The sun is shining, the wind is still, the last of the snow piles is trickling down to the gutters. You could be fooled into thinking this would be the last of the white stuff, these broken snow piles full of grocery carts and grit. You would be wrong, or course. You would be suffering from the annual delusion of optimism that March so famously for inflicts on us all. Instead, inaccurately named Winter Storm Toby is churning its way toward us from the Atlantic. The fourth time this particular weather system has circled round to slam us from the northeast this month.

Before I lived in sight of the Atlantic, I didn't really occur to me how strange it was to have weather moving backwards. In the urban jungle of Chicago, wind was simply expected to whip around buildings and come in unexpected gusts from any direction. In Ellensburg, Washington's 'windy city', the wind came ever from the west, where the mountain pass let but small vestiges of Seattle's weather reach us. Sitting here, the patches of blue sky end abruptly at the shore. Out over the water, the clouds thicken rapidly into the soupy mess that will be our mid-week wonderland.  

Here at the Patch for these last remaining pre-storm hours it really does feel like Spring. I have been busy: I've pruned the rose bushes, started to weed, and taken my new soil sensor out for a spin. After clearing out the existing raised beds, I may need to recover the patches where the flowers are blooming to get us through the week. Inside, the tomato seeds, which took their sweet time, are finally beginning to emerge. The peppers, spinach, and romaine on the other hand are decidedly obstinate. The peppers, I may have over watered. I rang quite of bit of water from the pods. They might do well with a heat lamp. The uncooperative spinach has been left to it's devices, but I've taken additional seeds and started them with a hot bath followed by life on a coffee filter for a few days. If they germinate, and the snow melts, the internet seems to believe I can plant them directly into the raised beds as they like the cold. 

The first day of spring should feel like a starting gun sending the Patch into action, instead it's all preparation and hunkering down around here. See you on the other side.