Club Day. The Nature Version.

It seems there is a battle raging between Old Man Winter and Lady Love Spring.  Just a little while ago I was ready to dance in the streets that Spring had finally arrived!  Little did I know that Winter was not yet ready to release his grasp on us.  The melting has stopped (those wishing for a slow melt have definitely received their wish so far), the wind had a bit of a bite in it, and it began to snow this afternoon.

As the Nature Club filed into our house this afternoon, I pondered out loud, "What do we need to do to make it spring here?"  One fellow, who was dropping off his sister, glumly replied that the Sun Salutations he was doing hadn't helped yet.  Maybe if more people were doing them, the balance would tip in the favour of Spring.  The rest, as if by reading my mind, replied that we should start planting things. 

And so planting we did, as we shoveled earth into our grow pots and planted the tiny seeds of some Roma tomatoes and sweet peppers, both ingredients for the pizza garden we planned a couple of meetings ago.  Spring, I'm hoping you'll win the battle and take claim to what is rightly yours, seeing as it is April after all.  If not, how will the Club grow their pizza garden?  Is it too early to start preparing this eager little troupe that the garden may fail before it's even in the ground, and to console them by reminding them the most rewarding learning experiences come when things don't work out exactly as planned?  Hmmm...sounds a little defeatist, and perhaps on the overdramatic side.  I think I'll hold off on that for a bit.

But the glum weather led me to change our plans a little bit.  I have scads of old seeds that I don't think will germinate well.  We were going to use them to make pictures with, by drawing a simple picture, covering it with glue and sprinkling seeds on top.  Instead, we opted to make popcorn.  Popcorn's a seed, right, so it was an easy substitution.  We read The Popcorn Book, then hovered over the stove to watch the popcorn seeds explode inside the pot.  By the time our late snack was finished, the snow had stopped and everyone tumbled outside to play in the fort Jaelyn, Astrin and I had made this morning.

At any rate, now the onions have some company.