Getting ready for spring

Instead of dividing and conquering our errands tonight, we made a family trip of them. First, we had dinner at Harvey's, then went over to my favourite kid's consignment boutique, Belly Laughs. We were looking for some pants for baby D, but we found a couple of other things, too.

The rain boots and matching coat:


Altogether just over 30$, and I'm very pleased!

Next up was Home Depot. I'm not a huge fan of going there, but I am a huge fan of spending time with my favourite guy and girl. We're looking to get a new water heater, as ours is the same age as our house (16 years old, and as drippy as you'd expect from an adolescent). We're just looking into pricing and installation costs for the moment, but we definitely want to own instead of renting. It saves hundreds of dollars over the lifetime of the water heater. While we were there, we also looked at springtime things: seeds, a seed starter kit, and a new garden tool, to be specific. Also a bistro set for 79.99$, now that our porch is a year old and could use better furniture than our old camp chairs. So we got all that, plus four storage bins for baby D's outgrown clothes, for 140$.

Regarding the gardening biz: I do not have very green thumbs. We have a rhubarb plant that my friend Mrs. Mac gave me a couple of years ago; I forgot it in the garage for two weeks, and then had to move it shortly after planting it, in order to make room for my clothesline. It still gave us two decent rhubarb crops last year. That kind of hardiness, where you all but kill something and it still flourishes, is a quality I can really get behind in a plant. This is my kind of plant.

I'm now branching out, so to speak, to growing things from seed. The little seed packets tell me that I am first to guess when the last frost will be, then nurture the seeds indoors for up to 8 weeks beforehand. I did try to grow some flowers from seed in the window boxes of our shed, but the boxes didn't drain properly, or at all, so it didn't work out. I'm hoping for better with the seeds. Here's what I got:
-zucchini (meant to be very easy to grow)
-cherry tomatoes
-canteloupe
-basil
-chives
-sweet corn

Can't wait to get started- spring is just around the corner!