Oh My Goodness! I am Still Here! (And Spring Gardening and other Stuff)

  Last post I sent I was ON my computer...well things went downhill from there.

It totally crashed.  I can not even get it to connect with the Internet...and I still do not have it fixed.  And we were all sick with the flu too for a time...so I am on my son's computer.  I get snatches here and there, of time.  I don't want to clog up his machine with my stuff, so I limit what I do to controlling email and folders! That's it!  I have not even updated my header for spring, or used any of the new settings Blogger has...!

The worst is I don't have pictures, and I fear I might have lost the ones I had....(who knows maybe we will NEVER have another winter like that again....or next winter might find me someplace else...who knows). I hope they can save them....I am going to try and get it looked at and hopefully fixed this week....but we are juggling cars (my number one son and I..) Both cars are in need of inspection the same time every year!  AND they both need transmission work..soon!

I am debating whether to "catch-up" and answer any blogs or just start where I am when I come back on (when I do)

Meanwhile I have been planting some spring lettuces, dandelions, and Arugula and radishes.  Not a lot yet because it has been so cold.  I will plant another grouping in another week and see what comes up....

And digging up potted plants that I have been putting on the porch lately.  A few years ago (Yes YEARS) when I thought we might be moving very soon...(until real life family matters took over) I dug up a few of my favorites or plants I got from my mother or grandparents....(even one or two from my great grandmother! )  and potted them in case we moved during colder months and couldn't dig them up..so there are plants in kitty litter buckets for YEARS that I dig into the ground (in the pots) every fall and then dig them up again in the spring for the patio..so when I DO get pictures posted of them PLEASE forgive the pots!! (including 2 pines ..not even sure WHY..they are easy enough to replace!! But I see a plant in a spot that it shouldn't be in, (ie; in danger of being trampled on or other wise destroyed) and it is small enough to pot and there I go again....I just can't bring myself to destroy a tree or flower bush that was started by seed dropping birds, or runners, like they were weeds...in fact..I have some trouble even CALLING some plants weeds, because they are either interesting, or even pretty, or edible!!  And have trouble getting them out!  I am sure my neighbors just HATE me for the patch of whatever is growing, in place of what is supposed to be called a lawn...and I will go grabbing another kitty litter bucket, poking holes in the bottom, filling it with stones or broken crock, and planting another plant..)

I now have 2 decent sized Japanese Red Maples (one from a neighbor and one from my mother's house...and we are talking started from a 1-2" seedling...) the neighbor's red maple is now about 4-5 feet!..my mothers started a little taller maybe 2' and is now at least 3' maybe more...my sister laughed at me when she gave it to me...wait until she sees it now..that tree that was in my mothers yard, came from VERY close friends of the family...in age between my grandparents and my parents..friends to all of us..young and old...close enough to be called "Aunt and Uncle"..both gone now...we spent many many good hours with them sometimes just strolling around their spacious garden and even as a kid quietly absorbing all that the adults talked about as we went along.  Going from plant to plant talking about its planting, and where it came from and, "Oh, do you want a piece?"  And how to keep it going, propagate, and even do air layering to make another plant... (I think the New Dawn Rose we have might have even come from them...and the Japanese Red Maple sapling (well seedling) came from a tree that was from them too (given to my mother) and going to my grandparents was the same..every visit consisted of dinner and a garden tour...it was the highlight... And we went every week.  The garden is always changing....)

And from that same neighbor across from me, that I got my now 4' Red Japanese Maple from, are 3 tiny seedlings (I found them in the lawn)...all now potted..2 long needle pines (one about 4' now and one I just dug up yesterday!) and a very Western-y kind of bent, twisted Pine too...it is slower growing and only about a foot tall... one Norway maple...assorted hostas, day lillys, Montauk Daisies, Sedums, and 2 tiny flowered Bridal Wreaths.  ALL easy enough to come by..it is a compulsion with me!  There is still a larger flowered Bridal Wreath we brought here when we moved (25 years ago) and that came from my mother, so I want to get a piece of that too...oh, also 2 or 3 New Dawn Roses (you just bend the branches down to the dirt and cover and weight them down..the next year you have a new plant...I have to be careful with the roses though, because even a hardy New Dawn is delicate in a pot and can develop black spot...).  Also easy enough to get today..but THESE came from my mother, who got them from my great grandmother....sooo....if and when we do move we will have more plants then furniture to take and I suppose I might have to smuggle them over borders!!  (haha..only kidding..nothing is going to be going to where it shouldn't be)

You see...plants and flowers (even veg..you see, I still have a rhubarb and a horse radish clump that came from my grandfathers garden) are memories to me.  I can tell you where, and who, just about every bulb, tree, flower, bush, and even some vegetables, in the yard came from..shared memories.  I even remember the bulbs we found thrown over a fence into the woods, and yet they flowered the next year..so we gladly scooped them out to plant in our garden...the will to live was just SO great we couldn't let them be tossed away like garbage... (I am the same way with recipes..some of my favorite recipes are ones from friends and family passed down on scraps of paper)

And I know in my heart, even if I DIDN'T take the plants I have potted with us when we finally do move, if I even SEE a picture, or find another of these plants in a catalog, it will hold the same memories...because lets face it....like us humans, they all came from the same source...so are all connected....and in that, we find a shared history...a connection...and what happens to one, happens to all of us.  Probably why I can't kill that weed....

So, hopefully I will be back soon...Back to work...

See ya later,
Janie