February chill

Warm bread on a cold February day

Our January thraw lasted about 2 days.  Now, we are back to cold days and colder nights.  The only noticeable difference from week to week is the sun rising earlier (noted by our dog getting up a few minutes earlier each day to go outside) and later sunsets.

Despite the continuation of winter, I am enjoying watching my tomatoes growing and planting some other items (broccoli, pansies and peas).  Yes, I am trying to get a head start on peas, picking up a 128 cell pack for $3.50 and planting pea seeds.  Bob Thompson wrote about doing this in his book, so I thought I would give it a try.

The broccoli seeds have taken and are up (8 out of 12) so I did another packet yesterday.  I did not have good luck with broccoli last year, but will try again, as I usually do quite well with it.  I am going to either use some netting or may spring for a poly cloth that keeps out the bugs.

I transplanted my lettuce seeds and they are doing quite well in their single cells.  One of my grow lights went on the fritz, probably due to age, so I replaced it with a regular fluorescent light.

Meanwhile Nancy is discovering more birds native to our area.  Yesterday she saw a nuthatch on our birdfeeder and later in the day she discovered a tufted titmouse in our lilac tree in the backyard.  It seems we are also the home of a single male cardinal, a bit unusual for our location, according to the Cornell bird watching encyclopedia.

I am also getting better at making no knead bread, making my best one yet on Sunday.  Only putting in a 1/2 cup of rye did the trick so that the bread had a better rise than earlier attempts.  Today I am trying to do 2 loaves in the same day.

View of garden on February 4, 2010

Tomato seedlings

Lettuce seedlings