11-52-2014: On to every flower, a little rain must fall…

March 16th, 2014 – It’s almost here, Spring that is. Here in Vancouver we usually joke that Spring starts January 1st, but it’s not really all that far off. At the condo I figured that I could safely plant things up to a Zone 10 if I was careful. Up here at the new house, I can probably safely assume between Zones 7 – 9 depending on which side of the place I am planting.

But I am so happy to have found one of these little flowering quinces again. I had one years ago, had found it at a wonderful nursery on the Sunshine Coast, but a disease killed it after a few years.

Since then I couldn’t ever find one the same, with a nice open branching structure and big dark pink flowers. They seemed to have gone out of fashion or something, not sure, but couldn’t find one regardless.

So I was delighted to discover a few out at my favourite nursery out in Langley, and bought two. I’m not yet sure where they will go, still toying with whether or not I will plan a pond into the new place….

Part of me doesn’t want to battle raccoons again. Part of me doesn’t want to maintain and clean up a pond every year. Part of me doesn’t want the hassle that comes with a pond/waterfall. Part of me doesn’t want the bother of fish again.

So that means that I’ll probably cave and design the new garden with a pond.

Aside from that, I have to laugh at two things this weekend.

#1. I’m an idiot. Why? Because only an idiot goes to visit the chiropractor because her back is out of whack, and then, an hour later, tries to muscle a 60 lb bag of soil into the back of the truck, thereby undoing everything that the chiropractor did.

and

#2. It’s been raining this weekend, and when Kirk and I were out in it, I noticed that we (and most others) shrink our necks into our collars in a vain attempt to avoid the rain?

While Mythbusters couldn’t disprove the fact that running means you don’t get as wet in the rain (running means you are exposed to rain for a shorter period of time), I can’t figure out why when we walk and don’t have a hood or an umbrella, we instinctively suck in our necks and lift our shoulders. Your head is still sticking out from your collar, you still don’t have anything over your head, so why scrunch everything up?

Just a couple of random observations for the day.