Springing...a little early

Being totally inspired by my city sister and her presence here and all of her goings on at home, I thought I might stop in and visit a spell.  And hopefully a bit more frequently.

Winter has amounted to very little in New England this year.  We have bare ground in February (very strange) and it is supposed to creep up to 50f sometime this week.  Unbelievable.  Well, all of the fair weather has us all going (cautiously) a little spring crazy.  We suspect that there will be a typical 3 foot snowstorm sometime in March but secretly hope that for whatever reason this year it will not come.

Robin's Egg blue keeps showing up in my life...first as the chosen color for my latest knit project.  A durable spring work sweater for me...yes me.  I rarely knit for myself.  But I was really feeling the need to wear this color, and to NOT wear my BROWN work sweater which pretty much is my uniform for all outdoor work in Spring and Fall.  I think my brown work sweater is about 12 years old and I got it as a hand me down...I love you brown sweater, but really?!  I have high hopes for this one...and I'll post some pics soon.  Strangely, or maybe not, I also went to the paint store to pick out a quart of exterior for our NEW front door (oh drafts be gone...and no more shoving plastic bags into the drafty cracks around the "antique" door with a screwdriver every night).  I laughed when I came home to discover that the color I picked pretty much matches my sweater.  I'll burn out on it eventually...maybe.

I have also sprung into action outside.  After years of growing veggies in our two 40X100 foot plots in the field, my needs have seemed to shift.  Where I have formerly practiced a very production based utilitarian sort of gardening/farming, I am craving now something a bit more scaled and beautiful in a different way.  Believe me, there is nothing more lovely in my mind than 600 row feet of dry beans crispy on the vine.  But for some reason, this year, I am also appreciating the value in a peaceful and intentional space and color and accessibility.  Those large plots will still be full of storage crops (potatoes, onions, carrots, canning tomatoes, butternut squash) and grains(oats this year) that do better in row planting and more space.
But what I consider our "consumable luxury" crops like lettuce, spinach, brassicas, slicing tomatoes, herbs and flowers, etc.  are going to make a new home right out my kitchen window and back door.  Oh the excitement, planning raised beds, edible landscape and human spaces that will turn this space into something so different.  Up to now it has contained:  weeds, firewood in various stages of processing, a chicken house, a wood drying structure, piles of scrap lumber...and other stuff commonly known in these parts as "culch".   Last weekend in a stream of glorious sunshine we put 8 hands together and turned the culchy yard into a totally beautiful blank slate.  My piles of drawings and seed lists and fantasies of munching on salad while sitting in the midst of living food and flowers and herbs are close I tell you...close to reality.

And not to neglect the indoors.  In a fit of spring organization I have once again vowed to attack the grocery budget with new vigor.  Like most folks we like food, and good food.  And so our food budget can creep away on us pretty easily.  However, when I keep it in check, I find we can still eat like we love to...just in a more organized and sensible way.  This week is "Week A" of my new meal planning and grocery listing method.  Already this week I cut my grocery expenditure by 100.00 as compared to last week.  Intrigued?!
Stay tuned.  I fully plan to share my weekly grocery/menu plans as I go.  And hopefully we can make a bit of a thing of it.

Well that's it.  A few seeds planted here, hopefully to spring into something beautiful and delicious and, yet still, useful.