Garden Seeds, Hot Cocoa, and James Joyce

We had a super-sweet New Year’s weekend. 

Todd and I went out to an early dinner on New Year’s Eve, then headed home, and enjoyed a nice, long weekend together. I turned a lot of my attention to the dogs, whom I feel have been patiently waiting for some extra loving. I made a yummy coconut curry chickpea soup, pruned the geraniums in the window, made chaga, hummus, and carob brownies, and started giving thought to this year’s food gardens. It’s only January, but March comes right along, and that’s when the greens bed gets its start.

If the greens bed isn’t covered with 3 feet of snow in March, my plan is to try something new. Instead of starting greens seeds indoors and transplanting outside, or waiting for the weather to warm to plant outdoors, I’ll direct sow in the ground while the ground is still cold, and mulch with hay. I expect that the seeds will lie dormant until the ground warms to germinating temperature (which is different temps for different seeds), and let the plants begin their growth. I don’t think the seeds will rot – greens seeds are very hardy.

It’s time to start looking at Franchi organic seeds for January or February ordering. Plus, there’s nothing better than being curled up on the couch with a mug of cocoa, the wood stove or fireplace roaring, and the latest spring seeds catalog to pore over.

And it’s time, now that we’re deep into winter, for some James Joyce. This time of year always stokes my appetite for Sunny Jim. His collection, ‘The Dubliners’, his epic, ‘Ulysses’, and my favorite short story, ‘The Dead’ (part of The Dubliners collection) are required reading while the snow falls and the garden sleeps.

Read ‘The Dead’ sometime soon, and if you don’t have the patience the read it all, just read the last few paragraphs of the story. Sometimes, when I walk by my copy of Joyce, I’ll pick it up and just read those last few paragraphs. When you talk about luminous writing, that’s what you’re talking about.

Now that we’ve cut the ribbon on 2016, it’s just a few months until we get planting again. Joy. In the meantime, there’s seed catalogs, cocoa, pots of strong Bewley’s tea, the dogs, my husband, a fire in the fireplace, pots of hot soup, and James Joyce. 

Not a bad life, this.

ཞི་བདེ

Peace on Earth