The Seed Catalogs

The doctor called yesterday to tell me all the blood work/mammo results were in and everything was fine except the bad cholesterol. It was a little high, so she said to excercise more and watch what I eat. But it was raining and cold so.....

The winds may howl about the house;
I'll just burn another log--
I'll browse
And drowse
The nights away,
While perusing catalogs!

And so I did. I read, re-read, cross referenced and pared down the list until I had this years perfect seed order.

Seedsmen reckon that their stock in trade is not seeds at all ... it's optimism. - Geoff Hamilton

So today with visions of an unsurpassed bountiful garden due to the perfect amount of rain, the perfect amount of sun, the perfect temperatures and insects that eat only the weeds, I will place my seed order.

Now seeds are just dimes to the man in the store
And the dimes are the things that he needs,
And I've been to buy them in seasons before
But have thought of them merely as seeds;
But it flashed through my mind as I took them this time,
"You purchased a miracle here for a dime."- Edgar A. Guest, A Package of Seeds

Oh for the days of yore when seeds were only a dime! Now you just about have to mortgage the farm! But....

One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of garden seeds.- Dan Bennett

And so one more thing off my to-do list, which by the way never seems to get any shorter. Now I just have to wait for the postman and weather to come together for this years miracle garden. Cyndy sent me this which explains it all to a tee.....

"It is the dead of winter. You have just stuffed logs into the woodstove for the seventeenth time today, and it is only nine o’clock in the morning. Outside the landscape is as exciting as a piece of yesterday’s butcher paper. With the wind chill factor it is forty-seven degrees below zero. Everything has frozen to death including the fence. You are seriously considering the logic of doing the same. Perhaps you will simply walk to the mailbox naked.But lo! What is this? A bright shining kaleidoscope beams out of the gloom and into your eye … What is this Fantasia of delight, this Xanadu of prose, this promised fairyland of spring?Why it is a garden catalog, of course. You shall open it now and, and read it cover to cover. You shall look at every glossy photograph … You shall read every word, believe every claim, desire every seed. You shall contemplate the quickening of your breath, the tingling of your veins, the thumping of your heart, the foreclosing of your mortgage. You shall, in other words, order every single plant in the catalogue. And you shall have absolutely no idea what any of them are by the time your head has cleared and UPS is trundling up your driveway. Not to mention the fact that that all the packaged plants will look exactly the same – like fettucini.It is early spring now. The UPS man has been to your home one hundred and twenty-five times since March first. He will no longer get out of the truck if you are nearby. Instead, he flings the packages out the door as if he were feeding lions at the zoo. He has a frightened look on his face. You do not blame him. You have a frightened look on your face, too. The garage no longer has room for cars. The local landfill exploded last week, spewing cardboard and excelsior over your tri-county area, and you are solely responsible. You have 9,725 plants to install before next winter, and you are not going to make it. The daylilies in box #316 have been grabbing at your ankles with their roots. Any moment now they will go for your throat. But you are still trying to figure out where to plant all the fettucini in box #65. The name on the label says it is "Eragrostis v. expensivosa as allgettoutti." But you have no idea what that means. You do not remember what any of these things are, or why you ordered them in the first place. … Some of these plants may kill you on contact. You no longer care.Outside, it will soon be ninety-seven degrees above zero and humid enough to turn wallpaper to oatmeal. It is out there that you must toil for your sins. You are doomed."From Susan Watkins, Garden Madness

She also sent me this about winter...

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ..... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself. - Ruth Stout

So now I am going to go hibernate like I want to. I didn't get to do much of that in January because of car shopping (hate it) and moving #1 son and shopping for him (hate it), doctors appointments etc. Good Night JohnBoy.