It's A Minor Miracle

My lettuce seeds sprouted a few days ago.  I planted them on the 22nd and they popped up on the 26th.  Yay!!

I had quite a few seeds left from my Veggie Starter Kit so I planted them in this tray on the 24th.

 

Yesterday, the 30th, these cucumber sprouts broke through the soil.  It's fun to observe this growth process.  It's like witnessing a miracle.

If you like this, you may want to check out my previous blog post for more about my mini seed project.

 

My Spring BUZZY Seed Project

I bought this kit to see if I can grow tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and sweet peppers from seeds.  I don't know where the urge to do this came from but I absolutely couldn't ignore it.

I debated over how to go about my spring project and ultimately decided on this $4.99 kit because it contained everything I need.

I like to have things spelled out for me so having these handy instructions on the back of the bag met my needs.  My dad grew vegetables in his large backyard garden so that gave me confidence that I can do it too.  My biggest problem will be where to plant this stuff outside when it's time for that.  We love our beautiful yard and flowers and hate to disrupt what we've created.  Lon seems a bit nervous about that.  Oh well, I'll worry about that tomorrow.  (I learned that strategy after reading GONE WITH THE WIND a few months ago. :) 

Toms, cukes, pepps and letts, what more could I want?  Can you believe I've named my offspring already!

I mixed the growing medium with water in a bowl and filled the pots. I counted out and added the seeds.  These tiny seeds pictured above promise to grow into tomato plants.

I identified this pot with the included label and covered the tomato seeds with a layer of growing medium.  I'm so anal, I called the Buzzy company to find out exactly how deep to cover them.  I was told 1/8 to 1/4 inch, in other words, not deep at all.

The sweet pepper seeds look like this.  I should have taken pictures of the lettuce and cucumber seeds too,but I must have been overly excited about my project and it slipped my mind.  The cucumber seeds were the biggest.  I liked them because they didn't stick to my fingers when I was trying to drop them into the "dirt."    

Since my memory is lousy, I wrote the planting date on the back of the pot labels.

I have a perfect window in the kitchen with plenty of light coming from outside in three directions.  We put this "garden" window in many, many years ago, not realizing how invaluable it would be at this time in my life.  :) 

 

I'm glad I bought this mister.  It really does work well for keeping the growing medium moist without disturbing the tiny seeds.

If this all sounds a bit familiar, it's because I bought a single-pot tomato growing kit a few weeks ago.  I'm pretty sure I featured it here.  Since I was away on vacation, it didn't get watered regularly.  I haven't given up on it though.   My brother, Carl, told me it still might be okay.

At 64, do you think I'm too old to be starting a second family?

Are you a word junkie?

 

You think English is easy?? I think a retired English teacher was bored...THIS IS GREAT! Read all the way to the end................. This took a lot of work to put together! 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture.. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.. 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? You lovers of the English language might enjoy this . There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP t he silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.We open UP a store in the morning bu t we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearingUP.When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,for now my time is UP   [Thank you, Marilyn, for forwarding this to me].

Celery Fields in Sarasota, FL And More

We stopped at Celery Fields in Sarasota, FL to see some more water birds.  We were pleasantly surprised to find something else. 

 

We took this boardwalk which led to a viewing deck over the water.

Right after stepping onto the boardwalk, eagle-eye Lon spotted this turtle coming up from its nest.

After seeing lots of birds at The Rookery in Venice, I totally focused on this turtle.  My friend, Beth, informed me that this is a "gopherus polyphemous," an ancient gopher tortoise.  It lives in a den that will shelter other critters too.  The eggs require 100 days to incubate.  Thanks, Beth, for the awesome info.

Of course, if one picture is nice, a few more is even nicer. 

Awesome!

Back at the condo on the balcony, I zoomed in to get a closer look at this boat crossing the gulf.

Unexpectedly, we had a visitor.  I held my breath as I shot this photo from only a few feet away.

I love this trio of palm trees that live in the sea grass within our gulf view.

I spotted this bird in a tree-lined parking lot.  (Sorry, this photo is stuck here out of order.  I tried to relocate it but it's happy here).  :) 

This is back on the balcony.



Jared often has luck fishing on this pier at The Crow's Nest restaurant.  While we wait for our dinner table, this is where we hang out.

Poor guy, me and my camera just won't let him be.

The minute Jared turns his back, I'm at it again!! 

Give me an inch and I take a mile.  Actually, he's learned not to mind. 

This monster was parked alongside the dock at the Crow's Nest.  To give you an idea of its size, we watched this boat lift a small motor boat from the water and store it somewhere on board.   

After dinner we came out on the pier again.

How about that eye!!  Kinda spooky.

On that note, we left the pier and made our way back to Siesta Key to finish out our day.

Venice, Florida Rookery