Pancake Day

Today is Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday. It is  also known as Pancake Day, but we didn't have pancakes today, we had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon because I forgot what day  it was until after breakfast. Today is also the last day of February. I'm not sorry to say goodbye to February since  the end of February means we're closer to  spring.  We'll soon be able to work  in the garden without worrying about frosts nipping everything in  the bud.  We've had some wonderfully warm days,  tricking  buds and blooms into popping up everywhere and tempting me to  jump start my   outdoor planting. But February is a big tease,  and there is always that unsettling threat of a late frost so I have resisted the urge and  puttered about in the greenhouse instead.

Yesterday began as one of those rainy, drizzly, gray Mondays but the forces of sunshine prevailed and the sun broke through the clouds in the early afternoon. The struggle between sun and clouds kept up most of the day, and I was kept busy turning the light over my seed box off and on.The seeds have been a little slower to germinate this year, due in part because my soil heating cable in the seed box decided to pop its clogs and I had to order a new one. Once the new cable arrived and was plugged in the seeds had just the right amount of heat to make them wake up. They began popping their little heads up quite quickly. I need to begin moving some of them, particularly the arugula and lettuce seedlings, into some plug flats or other containers.

I  did get some of my energy back yesterday  so decided to go to yoga last night. There were only two of us doing chair yoga, but my goodness we're getting better at adapting  some of the  positions to  the chair. I'm still finding some of the poses and  exercises irritate the port or at least make me   aware it's there and kicking, and my  s-shaped spine and bum hip don't always take too kindly to some of the stretches, but I may  work at home on some of the poses that  are known to  help with scoliosis like those   mentioned here: National Scoliosis Foundation, yoga

Today is another gray day and   a little windy so I'll put off  working at the potting bench for a day or so.  Today is the last day of February and it looks as though March may come in like a lion this year, a very wet lion, at that! The temperatures today and tomorrow are predicted to be in the mid seventies, but there's a chance of thunderstorms both days, so it will probably be Thursday before the  seedlings get a new home. Meanwhile there's plenty to keep me busy inside where it's warm and dry. It's just a matter of deciding what to tackle first and whether I'll need to rent a bulldozer to clear out some of the accumulated junk!