Green Chit Chat

A big thank you so much to the three of you who have already signed up for this year's Clothesline Challenge!

Robin from Simple.Green.Organic.Happy, my very forgiving penpal from Australia, and Willo from Green Gracious jumped right on board within hours of my posting.  And the official challenge doesn't even start until May 1st!

This year I promise not to be as lazy and offer some more green giveaways.  I'm teaming up with a blogger-soon-to-be-revealed who is quite fabric-crafty and who will no doubt have some clothesline-related doo-dads up her sleeve(s). 

As we get closer to spring, I always like to peruse the latest edition of Kids Garden News from kidsgardening.org.  Two items stood out:

If you are in the Grand Rapids/East Lansing area of the country, the 19th Annual Children & Youth Gardening Symposium will be held there towards the end of July.  Many moons ago Green Husband presented at this conference and I tagged along.  If they are offering garden tours this year, be sure to take advantage of this very inspiring opportunity.

Are you a teacher?  In the mood for a lot of slaw?  Know a third grade class who would like to raise some cabbages?  Then check out Bonnie Plants 3rd Grade Cabbage Program.  I mean, really, is there anything more that can be said about this...?

And finally I leave you with a fitting and timely excerpt from a poem by Jane Kenyon, one of my favorite poets.

The shadow of smoke rising from the chimney
moves abruptly over the yard.
The clothesline rises in the wind. One
wooden pin is left, solitary as a finger;
it, too, rises and falls.

from "Bright Sun after Heavy Snow" by Jane Kenyon, from The Boat of Quiet Hours. © Graywolf Press, 1986.

Clothesline Challenge 2011!!!

Yes, Virginia, there will be a Clothesline Challenge 2011.

Newbies, read up on it here and here.

Veterans, dust off your clothespins and find those lines buried under the snow.

Gift of Green's Clothesline Challenge 2011 begins May 1st.

Boing!! Spring!

Well, not really...and for those of you to the Mid-West to the Mid-Atlantic, I know that the notion of Spring is but a teasing whisper in your ear.

But do you know that feeling...?  When you are *done* with Winter and all the fun it entails.  We've loved the snowmen, the snow days, the cozy days drinking hot chocolate, but then, then, you get a whiff of Spring.  Maybe the temperature is above forty degrees, even if just for a few hours.  Or you hear a bird chirping outside your window.  Or...The Seed Catalog Arrives.

That's where we are right now.  The air felt warm, the bird sounded happy instead of pining, and the catalog just arrived.

So, of course, in the spirit of Spring, this blog needed refreshing AND I suddenly felt my husband needed this for Valentine's Day (from Gardener's Supply Company):

(The woman is not included)

This year, I so resolve to break out my copy of Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots



Most intriguing to me is A Garden of Giants! I would love for my children to be able to get lost in a maze of towering plants; to forget about the outside world for a while and to create their own surrounded by flowers.

And finally, a special thank you to Nini Makes who selected me personally (oh, I know it was luck of the draw, but how lucky I am!) to receive such a delightful pin cushion! Thank you, Joanie!

Are you dreaming of Spring?