Looking Forward to Spring.

I don't know about you, but not long after Christmas the itch for spring sets in. I enjoy the somewhat slower pace that comes with a Canadian winter (when it gets dark by 4:30 or 5:00 o'clock in the evening, all I really want to do is read a good book) but the gardener in me starts getting restless not long after the winter solstice.

With so many new hobbies and projects in the works this year, I had decided I would keep my gardening efforts very low key. I dismantled the shelves in the greenhouse and I'm still in the process of turning it into a tiny, natural light studio where I can take still life and product photography images all year. (My house doesn't get a lot of light in the winter.) I took the lights off of my seedling shelves and filled them with props . . .

In short  . . . I was sensible.

What I forgot in all this, was the fact that . . . well   . . . I'm not all that sensible when it comes to doing the things I love, especially when life is in need of a little extra joy.

I had a challenging day yesterday. The withdrawal symptoms from the medication I've been on for the lingering nerve pain after my bout with shingles in October aren't great. I decided it was time to do something fun. And today that meant something that would allow me to look forward to spring . . . and gardening.

I had a bag of tulip bulbs I had forgotten about down in my cold room and I knew just what to do. Thankfully, I hadn't gotten so sensible that I had purged all my gardening things. I made a quick trip the garden shed for my planting tray and some 6" pots, the kitchen for coffee filters and the greenhouse for a small bag of potting soil.

I was going to force my tulips, which would give me blooms inside long before I'd see any outside.

I'm late with this. I really should have done it in October sometime but, I had shingles, it was the last thing on my mind, so you work with what you have. Even though the bulbs aren't in top shape they are still firm and have begun to grow . . .

Time to garden!

 

There is nothing like playing in the dirt and imagining how pretty these are going to look to cheer me up!

Once the pots have been thouroghly watered and let sit over night, they will go into a dark, cool place until green starts poking up. Then they come out and go onto a sunny cool ledge. In this case the windowsill in Henry's man cave . . .

Shhhh . . . don't tell him!

The bonus to forcing this many pots of bulbs is that I can give them away as gifts. I get just as much joy giving them away, as I do keeping them.

What do you like to do to cheer yourself up when you feel a little 'blue'?