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We got up this morning and the temperatures and weather was so much better than it had been at the beginning of the week. We  watched a bit of the Olympics before we put our coffee cups down and went outside to take advantage of the warmer weather and  get something accomplished. I filled the wood bin, sorted the recycling, washed a few windows, and weeded in the garden.

I read in a book that you should scatter poppy seeds while the ground is still frozen and then as the ground thaws the seeds will settle into the soil. I did that last year and the poppies did very well..  I went up to the garden yesterday to sew my poppy seeds but the ground was frozen and the garden overgrown.. the chickweed had taken over and you couldn’t see the garden for the weed. Difficult to weed when the ground is frozen but I was still able to work for three hours  puttering and dead heading. Three hours in the garden in February is a great treat for me.

I had another three hours in the garden today. I worked on the moss rockery behind the vegetable garden. It is the perfect time to weed in there.. The ground that was frozen yesterday was much warmer today and in fact quite muddy. It was mild  (8 degrees) and really pleasant to be outside puttering in the garden.

E was out gathering wood again. He took a load to SoHo, and one to our friends. He had other things to accomplish at SoHo and down at Pirates Cove.. Trucks to start, boats to start, propane tanks to sort out…. all part of his monthly routine. It was such a great day to be outside getting things done. He seems to have completely recovered from the Bells Palsy he experienced last month and when he see the Doctors next month we expect a clean bill of health.

When I was a kid we had 22 kids on our street. All summer long we played outside.. We played Kick the Can, we played Wave and we played Mumbley Peg. Anywhere on the street was in bounds. Home plate for Kick the Can and Wave was on Sandy’s driveway.  Mumbley Peg was always played on the Caldwell’s front lawn… Now for those of you who were born later than 1970 here are the rules for Mumbley Peg. (on our street). Two kids stand opposite from one another, feet shoulder-width apart. The first kid takes his pocket knife and throws it at the ground, so that it sticks into the ground as close as possible to other guys foot. The second player take his knife and does the same. Then you each take a step back and go again. First guy who doesn’t get the knife to stick in the ground loses. We all had our own pocket knives.

It didn’t seem to concern our parents that we were on the street throwing knives at each other. Dangerous a game as this seems, it never occurred to us to ski backwards down a ski hill before jumping off a jump backward and then again skiing backwards to the next jump. If we did the things these awesome kids in the Olympics are doing, I am pretty sure our parents would have

drawn the line.