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Just noticed with horror that the last entry to the blog was made in May … with some terrified blabberings about the last frost warnings etc …

Well, spring summer and soon fall will have come and gone, and not a single entry in the blog. I am just not sure I am made for blogging, tweeting, facebooking or all that other stuff people seem to be into …. and when I mean people, I mean my husband. Who thinks he is young and hip and blogging and tweeting and all … but doesn’t realize that, in order to maintain that image, actually should put down the little pointy stick that comes with is phone and instead use the qwerty keypad he just HAD TO HAVE when buying the phone …. using the little doohicky to type is NOT hip.

Anyway, as I said, last blob was about the last frost of last winter ….. the next one is about the first frost of THIS winter. ANd between those two entries lay only 4 months and change. That is depressing.

All these plans I had for doing some major work in my garden this summer … adding some beds, putting a little fence at teh edge of the septic field/lawn so my kids would not be eaten by the wild thorny bushes every time they have to go ‘down there to retrieve a lost soccer ball …. all did not happen. Heck, I barely managed to get in a couple of tomato plants and mulch the one bed near the lower garage. That’s it. I just couldn’t get off my butt this summer to do it … mainly because it feels summer is so short, you want to ‘waste’ yor time doing nothing. Ugh. Maybe next year.

Let me preface this blog by saying I really don’t mind living in Vermont. It is beautiful, green, though somewhat remote. But I don’t hate it hear. Except that sometimes I do.

So I have been waiting patiently for Memorial Day to arrive. Not because I am super patriotic (not even a US citizen ….) or because I am a sucker for Memorial Day Parades (though they are touching …).

No. I have been waiting patiently because I love to garden. Love it. Never thought I would, what with having grown up in an apartment building and all. But it is just simply the best form of relaxation for me. Nothing comes even close to it.

Being the avid gardener (not saying I am a master gardener, just saying that I love to do it), I follow all the rules. And the overriding rule when you live in a Zone 4 here in Vermont is DON’T PLANT ANYTHING BEFORE MEMORIAL DAY! And if you ever strolled through a garden center in early May up here, you would understand how hard that is for a gardener. Because come April, they will have all the lovely annuals and perennials and bushes and trees and all that stuff out on display (inside, mind you, they garden too apparently). So I have been walking through the isles for weeks now, salivating over the plants and saying to myself WAIT FOR MEMORIAL DAY WAIT FOR MEMORIAL DAY.

Why, you should ask? Well, up here in good old Vermont, we commonly have night frost until the end of May, which is typically when Memorial Day occurs. But of course, my single minded green brain did not look at the date, no no, just the big bold lettes on the calendar, saying MEMORIAL DAY last weekend.

So finally, I packed my youngest son (older one was off biking with daddy) and we went to buy flowers. It was great, he picked some for his little garden, we picked some veggies together, annuals, perennials, some tropical flowers for the patio ….

I spent all weekend planting and mulching and weeding and all …. and the go inside, dirty, tired but oh so satisfied that I could finally put those plants in …. and fall down into my comfy chair to watch the evening news … and the weather forecast …. AND ALMOST CRY …. FROST WARNING …… AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Of course, it is only May 25 …. Memorial Day is early this year ….. and Mr. Frost seems to know that. So after all that work, I run into the basement and dig out every spare old sheet I can find and cover up all those containers and beds of still unplanted flowers etc. …… cover up the tomato plants in the bed, bring in the tropical plants in containers from the porch …… and wallow in self pity and question myself once again on my choice of calling Vermont home plate.

My mom in Germany had her marigolds out in late March ….. heck, she is probably already picking strawberries and tomatoes …… even in Boston they are light years ahead of us up here ……

But alas, Vermont is home and we have to deal with it. Frost came and went, flowers survived under their sheets and blankets … and I start counting the days until fall when I start covering again to prolong their lives for another week or so when the first frost of fall hits again … right around Labor Day …… argh.