Sorry for the long break in writing. Did not have much to say, really. Fighting for the everyday survival and waiting for the damn sun to come out and ease the pains both physical and mental. So in other words I was busy bee working, drinking and surviving. That’s pretty common excercise in this part of the world. Especially in winter, of course, when the temperatures drop and the snowing looks neverending and the piles of snow are as high as man. We hibernate our way through winter. We look like alive people, but we are half-dead. Truly so. The best thing happened now in about week ago. We had sunshine for some three hours!!! AND ALL OF IT IN ONE DAY!!! That chaos! People could not work their boring stupid jobs staring out of the windows, shopping centres were empty, people were in the middle of the street just staring at sun and not moving. I kid you not. I was like that myself!!! Immediately went half-naked outside because it felt like it must be heatwave and, as in every spring, it was not. So caught cold immediately and now have running nose. Running nose is the proof of spring. The undebatable proof. Every year! And I never learn to put on proper wintergear still. Fuck it. Just mere reason of running nose gives me pleasure beyond imagination. After the sun went down at about what, 16ish, in the evening I went back in and immediately took out my stash of seeds. Beware, the hunters and gatherers are loose and waking up!!!I have put some effort to this years crops early this time. In the end of February I had four types of tomatoes, some basil and some flowers peeking out of the pots already. And today, 17th of March it happened. I knew it would. It’s snowstorm, shiny slippery roads, snow and ice blasting onto windows, cars again covered with snow. Oh, I planned to start with gardening works this weekend. Well. At least I tried. I went to feed the feral cats at my cottage and was prepared to do some digging in the garden. As you know, sometimes the weather can be totally different mere 100 kilometres further. But it was not the case this time. Was freezing cold just like here in the big city. I made TikTok live feeding cats and then we had a chat with some followers. Chat means that I was talking 🙂 and they were listening. That’s like meditation out loud, like monologue. And the best part is: nobody complaining or saying stupid things. Only me saying stupid things 🙂 

So I managed to put down some tulips today. It is not common to do this in spring tho. I only ended up with this because I just didn’t manage to do it on time in autumn. I had two baskets full of bulbs that I had no place to put to and then the land froze over and it was too late as I would break either my tools or my hands with this fight. I had nothing else to do but to put the baskets indoors and cover them with blanckets. As there is no heating in the house the life cycle of the bulbs just kept on going. I mean they were almost like in the dirt, frozen and all. The temperature drops to minus 30C, which is minus 22F. I did not expect them to survive but most of them did! Just lost handful of the bulbs that caught some mould on them or were sort of starting to rot as they were soft. Proper bulb is perky and hard like…. erm, fill in the gap yourself 🙂 

I put on the gloves but still all freezy and nasty. I only got one basket of bulbs into the huge garden vases that guard the driveway, the other basketful are still not planted as I don’t have any idea yet where to put them. It’s hard to keep motivation through half year of shitty skiing weather. So now I am sort of stuck on constant planning of what to do when the sun comes out next time. And yes, I have long list of things already in there. This year I want to have a field of potatoes again. I had few years own potatoes and let me tell you – that were the best potatoes I have ever had! I had no proper seed potatoes, just had 12! potatoes that I bought from grocerystore and they started to grow the tiny white nibs on them. I could peel them and eat them but was a tad too late for this as they were looking kinda ancient already, all wrinkled up and also soft. So I took them to my cottage, dug up some few metres of land and put the potatoes in. Thought, even if they do not come up they sure will be eaten either by the rats or turn into fertiliser. In no time I saw all 12 plants turned up. Saw them flowering and took out some of the weeds that came to bother them. I am not sure when I took them up but I remember how lovely huge potatoes there were. All 12 plants had nice big nests full of fresh homegrown 100% ecologically clean potatoes. Not much but I got some 20 kilos from these 12 potatoes that I considered to throw away. Win!

So this year I already bought actual seed potatoes from proper farm/ garden/ flower shop. Took 5 kilos bag because I think it’s going to be some 70-100 kilos in return. I need to prepare the field for them, I already know where I will plant them. I have special tiny plot in a sunny place in my garden. Potatoes are pretty decorative plants, you know, all the way up to autumn. So they will be in one end of my peony garden 🙂 Will see if some visitors of the cafeteria that I run in the summer will notice.

Anyways, leave you with some nice thoughts and hopes. Keep it warm and cool 🙂

XOXOX