Cherry Blossom Time

It's still a little chilly in the mornings when Eco and I go out for our walk, but it's spring here - lots of flowers in bloom - it's time for colour and fun, so I decided to make these Cherry Blossom Fingerless Gloves:

My favourite colour for the gloves and I love cherry blossom imagery. What else reminds you of spring?

A Spring-like walk in Winter

We have been having some lovely warm weather here in the Vancouver area - pretty much the only part of Canada that is not only above zero degrees celsius, but also in the plus digits - 11 to 13 degrees, with a warm wind coming up the Pacific coast bringing an unseasonable but welcome 15 degrees the other morning.

I had to buy Eco another bag of food, and so I decided to take her along for the ride since there is a nice off leash park nearby. This is the first time I've left Eco in the car when I went into a store. I really don't like doing that but the weather seemed to be favourable and it was a short trip inside - plus she got lots of treats when I came back.

After the shopping it was off to the park when he was over-stimulated by so many new smells. She didn't calm down as I tried to cross a football sized field to get to the dog area. She started her off leash experience with a swim and followed it with a sprint through the trails.

Eco is normally a super happy labrador, but I tell you she was 10x  happier running in those trails. She would run ahead and then come racing back to ensure I was following her. We ended up getting so high in the trails I was in line with the setting sun, and could not longer hear the traffic or the people below. I tried to take a shortcut on what I thought was a trail, but when Eco started to look like she couldn't follow the trail, I trusted my dog and returned to trail that she confidently followed. We soon emerged at the other end of the park, exactly where I wanted to be.

She was soaking wet and full of mud but very happy. We came home and went straight to the tub where for the first 3 minutes I thought I was washing off her chocolate colour - that's how much mud came out of her!

Sunny Gardening Weekend

Well I did get out there and garden on Saturday. In fact, I was out there for about 6 hours. And it was another glorious perfect spring day on Sunday too, so I was out for about 4 hours. Saturday I put together some pots an planted some seeds. Then I worked on edging some garden beds and tidying them up. I discovered some extra plants and some plants are missing - like a wonderful viola that should've been up by now and seems to have disappeared under a pile of fern leaves. The only good thing is that the viola likes to travel and I have found little plants in other parts in the yard so I hope they will be able to establish themselves.

I also moved two roses that may have been a mistake. One has been overgrown by the wisteria and couldn't even bloom since it was robbed of light and water - however, thanks to those wisteria roots it was IMPOSSIBLE to dig it out, so I used my fingers to get ahold of as much root as I could and pulled. I sure hope it can regrown in the new place. It'll be so much happier where I moved it.

And that's basically my weekend- almost all of it outside and almost all gardening. But I'm so very grateful for the wonderful weather - it's been a few years that we've had an April like this one. One more day of sunshine and then it's back to rain for the rest of the week. But I sure am looking forward to the Good Friday holiday! And Easter this weekend, I can't believe it's already time for Easter. It's just the two of us, but we'll make it special somehow

It Sprung!

We had a lovely 'first day of spring' yesterday - for Vancouver, it was right on schedule - birds chirping, squirrels running around, green blades of bulbs poking from the ground, fuzzy pods on trees like the magnolia, and tiny yellow flowers starting to emerge from the forsythia.

And then as I peruse friend's blogs and other photos - I see there is still snow on the ground in many parts of Canada and the US and I'm sure there are many people less than thrilled that the calendar says it's spring when it doesn't feel that way outside. Which group are you in?

I am definitely ready for spring and mentally ready for gardening this year. Over the winter I've been learning about 'square foot gardening' and I think I'll give that a try. I also want to grow more vegetables and herbs and other edibles. Any recommendations?

PHOTO CREDIT: http://eofdreams.com/photo/spring/06/

Early Spring

It looks like today will be our last sunny day for a while, rain is in the forecast starting tonight, so I thought I'd quickly share some random garden photos.

This is one little sitting area  - it doesn't look like much now, but just wait in a few weeks the clematis and wisteria will fill out and you won't recognize it:

And here's some cheery flowers in my front garden

And some veggie seedlings: 

Must Have That - Busines Update

Twice this week I've had an item from my Etsy shop featured in an Etsy Treasury - the first one called: The Next Generation where my pea green striped hat is featured and another called The Playful Gallery which includes my little Turtle Booties.

Etsy defines a treasury as:  an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery comprised of lists of items.These lists contain 16 items. Members can create a themed collection or feature their favorite items from all over Etsy.

If the seller is popular they can help generate traffic to your store, which will hopefully lead to sales. Being featured is like a recommendation from a friend and is definitely welcome exposure. Treasuries are not for self-promotion so you should feature other people's work. In a sea of products and shops it helps when your items are brought to the front. 

I've also had some requests from ladies in my dance class, including one who bought a pair of wrist warmers right off my hands! 

All these requests are a good thing to keep my mind off our chilly spring - including a nasty hail storm yesterday. Luckily only the crocus and the snow drops were in flower at the moment as the daffodils and tulips only have about 6" leaves at the moment. I would like it to get warmer since I've been quite cold the last couple of days. Odd how I was warmer in -16 degree C weather during my trip last week than I am here with +8 degree C weather. Like everyone says I guess it's our dampness that makes the biggest difference. 

What does spring look like where you live? 

Today I have an extremely sore neck and shoulders. I don't think I'll be doing any work today, just to rest them a bit. I won't even walk Eco which is pretty rare for me to miss a day. I'm just going to do laundry and sit in the sun and read and hope my pain goes away. I feel kinda bad because it's going to rain again soon and I really should be mowing the lawn or gardening but just the thought of pulling out the motor is too much at this moment, but health comes first right?

I hope you're enjoying one of our first beautiful sunny spring days too.