Time for a new FISH IN THE HAND picture - but not tonight.

It's been a month or more...but finals at school are at hand, and putting in the garden is an every-spare-minute thing. So...just to get things cranking for spring blogging, a picture or two:
Spinach. Thank you. And little tiny baby salad greens...a beautiful thing, to be sure, but a little harder to be very, very creative about: toss them on a little plate, throw some mandarin orange slices and cherries and sprouts and seeds on there, and...well. The arugula (in the middle of the row): some days yes, some days not so much. It is overpowering when matched with delicate lettuce greens. And a picture of this and that (thanks to Will and his new camera...he couldn't help himself but maybe I'm possessive about mine...) First - the purple martin house. Will always DID want one. We do not know why we have only three pairs of martins in this, the second year. Will seems to think we would have a billion pairs...or at least one in every little apartment. I mean, he went through a lot of trouble making sure each little apartment was separated from the others (I did joke last year that he should just go ahead and give every apartment a little barbecue pit and maybe wind chimes). But we are grateful for the ones we do have, and as long as we keep our distance with the mower and the tiller, they don't fuss to much. And, of course, we have the 'pond and fountain' feature...I laughed at first (it seemed so absurd) but i have come to love it, especially the sound of water...

And now, about this season...young as it is: It think things are different, although I can't be sure. You always think, every year...when did I plant what? When did this or that bloom? Unless you keep meticulous records about all these things, you cannot go back to check of course: This afternoon I looked out of the kitchen window and hey! gardenias! well - that's fabulous. Seems a bit early...and then, tonight, I went onto the patio and, reaching down for the hose, I came face to face with a night-blooming cereus flower. What a surprise! Isn't it early for that? Hey,. If everything blooms now, what's left for later? And we have clover come up and bloom all over the place before we can mow again. Now, clover is a wonderful thing, but I don't remember that ever happening. You know, it comes up and you mow it down and that's about it..in the spring. But over and over again? and so quickly? what's up with that? who knows. Tonight, Will it at the monthly Louisiana Beekeepers meeting. Not that we are beekeepers, but we had a hive a long time ago. The problem is, there are no bees here. Well, one or two. Think about that. One or TWO? Bees? So it's time to get a hive. More later about that. This is pretty serious business.

In the meantime, these rows of plastic have now been planted with melons. Yes, we need bees.