mid winter spring-fling

Yesterday mom, Aunt May, Rachel and I drove to Valparaiso to the 8th Annual Gardening Show.    It was a convention center full of plant starved gardeners.  The center was also filled with vendors and crafters peddling the garden-centric wares.  There were a few really neat things at the booths.  Mom, Aunt May and Rachel had attended last years so they knew right away which booths were really made by the booth operators and who was peddling things made by the Chinese. 

Their prior attendance knowledge also knew that the first stop should be the bulb and seed exchange.  Upon entrance we were each given five tickets to use to get seed packets.  Aunt May brought seeds to exchange and gained more tickets that way.  We also found out that we could buy more tickets at a rate of five for a dollar, one ticket equaling one seed packet.   Mom loaded up on the Cannas bulbs while Rach and I plotted and schemed out veggie gardens for the spring.

The terra cotta pot is hand-made by a made named Cleve Hayes from Lawton, Michigan.  He also sells bud vases for windows.  

As soon as I got home I took to plotting my plot.  So far the plan is two raised beds behind the garage.  I'm really excited about the lemon cucumber seeds and the yellow watermelon.  Mmmm.

We also picked up this hand hewn spatula.

It was made by this man, Robert Engelhardt, from Portage, Indiana.  He specializes in bowls. I really loved his state shaped bowls. 

"My wooden Bowls are hand hewn from green wood with a hand adz, a tool used in the early 1800's." -Robert's business card

This spatula has a date with destiny.  It will be our pancake flipper for this year's Maple Syrup Festival Feast in April.

Ahhh, but for now the dreams of spring must be set aside to appreciate the wonder of winter.  Winter and its current temperatures of negative three degrees.  I like to appreciate winter from indoors (wrapped in a wool blanket).