They Have GOT To Be Kidding

I'm listening to Pete the weather guy saying on the teevee that we're supposed to have sleet and freezing rain today and then up to 4 inches of snow by morning, plus more snow throughout the day on Friday.  No, really?  Wasn't it warm and sunny last Sunday?  Don't we get to keep that now?  Aren't we done with winter?  I feel done.  I also feel like I'll be calling Skully to cancel tomorrow's walk along the river.  Good grief.

The blueberry class was very inspiring and made the possibility of saving my blueberries by replanting them in pots with soilless media and then sinking them into the ground seem totally doable.  I want to do it NOW.  I want to go outside this weekend with my shovel and some 5 gallon pots, a bag of pine bark nuggets (don't you just love the word "nuggets"?  it's so cozy.), one of peat, a bit of Perlite, and DIG.  (1 part nuggets, 1 part peat, 1 part Perlite [optional]--that's the recipe)  Vijai, the UW Extension horticulturist, has enthusiasm enough for all of us and isn't too proud to say when he doesn't know things.  He's also excellent at sidestepping questions about which cultivar is the best and where to buy things.  I knew he was nice and very helpful, what I didn't know is that he says "actually" nearly every other word.  It's one whale of a verbal tic and he must have said it fifty-hundred times in that hour and a half.  After a while I didn't hear it quite as much but then it caught me again and it was all I could hear.  Marginally annoying but I can deal for all the great gardening info he shares.  You should find the University Extension office near you if you're a gardener or want to be; they have bales of free pamphlets, they do soil tests for not too much moolah, help identify pests and weeds and tell you what to do about them, have test and demo gardens, and are all-around helpful, at least ours is here.  My tax dollars at work.  And I found out that I can use the pine needles that my friend, BD offered as mulch.  Score!

April 11--Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave at Kanagawa.

Claws of foam loom
over tiny boats
Mt. Fuji broods

Wind-shredded water
roaring, heaving
air and sea at war

Fanatic oarsmen
paddle fragile crafts
up oceanic mountains
~~~~~

Okay, not haiku but haiku-ish.  I never got the whole "seasonal symbol" part of writing a haiku but I do like trying to paint a picture with just a few words.  Like I said, I'm enjoying the challenge to poem this month.  I'm going to brood today upon the crap-tastic weather.  There may be pouting involved, also foot stomping and Bonaire-dreaming.  I'm outta here.
--Barbara