Happy Groundhogs Day

Today is Groundhogs Day and Full Snow Moon. I also read in the Old Farmer’s Almanac that it is Candlemas Day. They had this verse...

If Candlemas be mild and gay,
Go saddle your horses and buy them hay;
But if Candlemas be stormy and black,
It carries the winter away on its back

Which would lead you to believe that since it is mild (29 degrees) and gray (overcast) we are going to have 6 more weeks of winter. But alas, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow so that foretells an early spring. Maybe the time of day will change things as we are due to get some snow later this afternoon which would make it stormy and black!?! I am all go for the early spring. Half of the plants are already in bud or coming out of the ground. We haven’t had any snow to speak of. If you added all we got together I don’t think you would get to 2 inches.

Cyndy,http://riverrim.blogspot.com/, has told me that all seed orders need to be in by this date. Knowing this date was coming, last weekend I did work on sorting thru the catalogs and narrowing down the list of “wants” to a more realistic, manageable size. So this morning I put aside the knitting and decided to finish the task. I usually order from several magazines to keep them coming but this year I decided I can look on their websites if I really want to order from them. I narrowed it down to two companies …Victory Seed and Seeds of Change. This has made me change some of my picks but I can work with it. So here it is…

The Seeds of Change ~ Nutri-Bud Broccoli, Delicata Squash, Amish Paste Tomato, Royal Burgundy Beans and Cherokee Wax Bean.

Victory Seed ~ Late Flat Dutch Cabbage, Mammoth Red Cabbage, Straight 8 Cucumbers, LI Cheese Squash, Red Strawberry Popcorn, Atlantic Broccoli and Broom Corn.

I still have to pick up seed for yellow squash and the Fordhook vucchini that I like. I might even have some as I haven’t checked the seed stash. I know I have pumpkin for the kids and jalapeno pepper, sugar snap pea, Riesentraube tomato and Blondkopfchen tomato, Yellow Pear tomato and I think I still have some Green Zebra tomato seeds. The beefsteak tomato plants and seed potatoes we buy locally. I will have a bigger root cellar this year so I was thinking of carrots, leeks, parsnips, turnips and brussel sprouts but I can buy them at the farmers market and store them. I decided to not do green peppers this year. I will buy them locally and freeze them. Mom may chime in with some others but that is the list as of now.

I guess while we have no snow I should go clean up the garden and get ready…no it’s still winter and I will stay inside and do fiber arts, there will time for that later. Before you know it I will be in the greenhouse and will have less time for the fiber.