Morning has broken like the first morning

After not posting a blog entry for over 4 months, I am rejuvenating, revitalizing, reviving, and otherwise starting to blog again. This time, I have a theme, as suggested by a few Facebook friends. And I always do what I'm told on Facebook. :)

I have seeds planted! Yesterday morning, with the sunlight glinting off the piles of melting snow in the backyard and the air shimmering in the heat of about 45 degrees, Tim and I planted 66 starter pots. Gently pressing seeds into the soil and covering them up, we smiled as we listened to the joyful cacophony of raucous bird sex going on in the enormous blue spruce behind my house. It's not quite spring yet, but those boys and girls were not wasting any time.

Because I know you're interested, the seedling count goes like this:

20 Carrots
8 Spinach
6 Beans
4 Sugar Snap Peas
4 Summer Squash
5 Basil
5 Oregano
3 Cilantro
4 Parsley
2 Sage
2 Rosemary
3 Thyme
^ How nerdy am I, to get excited over a Simon and Garfunkel herb garden...

I did garden a little last summer, although my attempts were largely thwarted by an extremely anti-plant Golden Retriever. But the survivors really surprised me with their persistence. I had one cherry tomato plant grow to be about 5 feet tall, and it yielded tomatoes from July through October. My other tomato I believed to have been completely uprooted, but it held on and grew three large, juicy tomatoes for me anyways. My little pepper plant gave me several perfect little bells, and I loved admiring the dainty white flowers that it put out first. The relative success of last summer has inspired me to try again this summer, even though I have to be out of the house in July. My other source of inspiration has been the work of a woman who, though I've never met her, I feel like she and I would be friends. Probably a lot of people feel that way.

I know I'm totally behind, having only read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle this past week. For goodness sake, I think my MOM read it over a year ago. But I didn't have a copy, or a library card, or disposable income... But I did finally buy it (with a Barnes and Noble gift card, thank you so much Renee!), along with two Michael Pollan books, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. I'm sure those two will find their way into conversation here too, but that's for a later time. I was able to blaze through AVM on two train rides downtown and finish it thanks to the ample free time afforded teachers during standardized testing. While reading, I found myself longing to join with Barbara Kingsolver's family in taking pride in growing my own food. I began to wonder how upset my landlords would be if I dug up the lawn in back to make space for more gardening. I did searches for heirloom vegetables and found some neat ones, although I ended up planting pretty standard varieties. I seriously considered making my own cheese. I considered how noisy chickens would be in the city. Then I began wondering if living in the country really could be for me, even though I've always considered myself to be a city girl. As I type this, it makes me blush a little to observe how impressionable I am. Although sometimes I'd like to be, I can't BE Barbara Kingsolver. Nuts. But I am planning on continuing as a customer at the neighborhood farmer's market! And, Lord willing, I will grow some of my own food as well, even if it means knocking on the front door in August and asking my former landlords if I can pick my tomatoes out of their backyard. :)

For now, though, I have my rows of dirt, haphazardly labeled, soaking in the late winter sunlight as best they can. My little biodegradable pots of promise.