We arrived home at 3 a.m. March 20 foregoing yet another night in a cheap motel room for a few hours more drive and our own bed. The heat was on as well as our new back porch lights (yay) to welcome us home. There is still quite a bit of snow (as you can see), but the sun is glorious today. I am working on getting the rest of my plants up from the cellar – post soon to follow.
Everything still works! The bird feeders are full again – I had to pick up a very foreign object (snow shovel) to try to pry my way into the shed to fill them – but the birds haven’t rediscovered my garden just yet. This is what I discovered – Crocus and Daffodils!
I checked the temperature of the greenhouse yesterday – yes, it’s still standing – 60°F! I will be planting up seeds this week. A big shout out and thank you to Sheri at the Unfettered Fox for sharing heirloom glass gem (beautiful) popcorn seed with me! The kids at Thousand Islands Park will be growing it this season. We are going to be growing our own healthy snacks this year.
Last year Donna at Garden’s Eye View shared “Save the Bees” seeds with me for the kids community garden at Thousand Islands Park and we learned all about pollinators. As you can see, they worked!
Now that I’m home, I can’t wait to get out in the garden – especially my own!
The Violet Fern 
03/22/2015 at 12:30 pm
Welcome home Kathy…and it seems your snow is less than mine as you have some bare patches with bulbs showing….yipppee! I hope you brought the southern warmth with you….we need it. Hey I have a few packets of herbs and an extra one of nasturtium ‘Empress of India’ if you would like them for the kids community garden. Some yummy treats for them to try. Let me know! Perhaps I might get a chance to come up and visit the garden this summer.
03/22/2015 at 3:40 pm
Thanks Donna! So far only the sunshine has followed me but the greenhouse is warm. I told my cranky husband to go sit in it! I would so love if you visited the gardens this year – there’s many sights to see here. The Clayton Harbor Hotel is beautiful – I would offer you my home but our rooms are still torn up to paint the floors! Wasn’t I going to send you some seeds or plants? Please remind me again so I can get them out to you this Spring.
03/22/2015 at 2:11 pm
Welcome Home! can’t wait to hear how the houseplant experiment went! 😉
03/22/2015 at 3:41 pm
Thanks Eliza! I think the experiment went well considering the odds and the coldest winter on record since??? I’ll post about it soon.
03/22/2015 at 3:59 pm
Welcome home, Kathy! It’s nice to get away from the old but there’s no place like home! 🙂
03/23/2015 at 11:18 am
Thank you Beth. I feel as though I have two homes now but this is my home with the kitchen. It’s good to be back in my kitchen!
03/22/2015 at 5:13 pm
Welcome back! I’m jealous of your spring bloomers, we still have to much snow for any. Im sure the kids at Thousand Island will be happy, it looks like a beautiful place.
03/23/2015 at 11:25 am
Thank you! I am sure you have Spring bloomers – just buried under snow. A few sunny days … and I’ll be jealous of yours! Thousand Islands Park is a beautiful place and I am so honored to be their gardener. They work really hard to keep its history alive. I enjoy working with the kids but it’s difficult as many only attend sporadically as they are on vacation. It’s great to work in a place where most people are on vacation, though – happy!
03/22/2015 at 5:28 pm
Welcome home, especially from your soon to be grateful birds!
03/23/2015 at 11:27 am
Thank you Diana. I miss my birds! Still not much action. I’ll keep the feeders full and the water available though just in case. Soon, I’ll be hanging up the hummingbird feeders – yay!
03/22/2015 at 9:09 pm
Aren’t those daffs and crocuses in your yard? I thought that’s what Donna meant, that you have some places where the snow has melted. I used to have a narrow strip along the front walk where the snow had melted, but it snowed again and covered it up! Let me add my “welcome home!” to all the others.
03/23/2015 at 11:19 am
Thank you Kathy. Yes, daffodils are pushing up in the bare patches I have and the crocuses will be coming up out front soon, too. The aconites and snow drops are still under a foot and half of snow.
03/23/2015 at 4:45 pm
Happy Home!!! Good to hear you are back and look forward to your season-now you are back with us “snow people”-lol
We had snow today!
I can hardly wait!!!
03/27/2015 at 1:24 pm
Thank you Robbie. Definitely among snow people – snowed again this morning. Depressed. BUT the birds are singing louder and the crocuses are blooming anyway!
03/26/2015 at 11:35 pm
WOW it’s so hard to believe people are still under snow and we’re whining about how hot it is! Those are some seriously resilient bulbs. Welcome home, I hope that corn ?I sent isn’t as smashed as it looks. It wasn’t supposed to be machined! Let me know if you need more. Have fun in the greenhouse this week! ~
03/27/2015 at 1:23 pm
Sheri it was snowing this morning – downright depressing. I may be moving, too! The seeds you sent are perfect! I think it is just a little rumpled but definitely not crushed. Can’t wait to share these with the kids! Thanks so so much!
03/30/2015 at 6:58 pm
Sorry about the snow, but good about the seeds! Did you ask about those envelopes? My email is messed up. Office Depot/Staples, I think they’re coin envelopes? I’m trying to switch from plastic to paper and they work great.
03/30/2015 at 8:37 pm
I have a whole box of coin paper envelopes Sheri, thank you, and one is soon on its way to you – before you move’
03/30/2015 at 9:20 pm
Oh boy! I love surprise seeds! Oh man, I was at the Baker Creek ‘Seed Bank’ in Petaluma today. So dangerous! I’m going to go broke living near there but it’s worth it.
03/28/2015 at 7:38 pm
Kathy, I hope that snow is melting quickly, and those shoots are growing upward, along with many more! I am sure the birds are happy to have you home!
03/31/2015 at 10:01 pm
Kathy, How nice to fine crocuses to welcome you home to spring. I saw the first nub of a daffodil pushing up today at the edge of a south-facing flower bed, but my crocuses are still buried under snow.
04/01/2015 at 10:54 am
Thanks Jean! Ironically the bulbs I planted for early blooms like snow drops and aconite, are still buried under snow. HOWEVER, the high predicted for tomorrow is 55°F whoo hooo! Take THAT, snow!