Do I Smell Spring?

Southeastern Wisconsin is a wonderful place to live. We have some of the best schools in the country, low crime rates, we are smack dab between Chicago and Milwaukee, so a trip to the big city is a short commute, and the weather! Oh the weather!

Today was in the upper 40s and half the teenage population was in shorts and on skateboards, dodging old snow piles and skidding across wet parking lots. Windows were open and Cheeseheads everywhere shed their winter jackets and had their noses in the air, sniffing Spring.

Yes, gentle reader I said sniffing Spring-or rather "False Spring" I heard it called once in a John Wayne movie. When the first semi-unfrozen days occur in the early months, we all pretend that Spring is actually on the way and we haul out the bermuda shorts and we all head to Home Depot or our favorite garden center.

Not many of us are dumb enough to actually buy plants this early (as we have all shoveled snow in April-I personally had plants freeze on June 6th!), but we can dream, can't we? We stay long enough to get into Spring-mode, we plan, we earmark, we make lists, and last, but not least, we take a final whiff of damp earth, growing seedlings, fertilizer and herbs (yumm!) before heading back home.

So here I am, armed with starter mix and a bag full of seeds-ready to get a jump on the warm weather to come. Bob built me shelves with plant lights in the basement, so before I lose motivation, I'd better get sowing!