Friday afternoon activities

 I had a little mishap this morning.  I hoped it wasn't going to set the tone for the day. 

My creamer pitcher fell out of the cupboard and landed on my butter dish. 

I've had that butter dish for at least 10 years. Perhaps the universe was telling me it was time to get a new one? 

Then I decided I would make a loaf of bread.  I have a breadmaker I picked up second-hand.  I hit start and I could tell the paddle wasn't moving.  *sigh* I dumped the dough out, knead it by hand and tossed the breakmaker in the garbage.  It will be a while before I decide to get a new one. 

Things could only go up from there, right? 

Well, yeah ... 

This afternoon I decided to make an apple crisp and make a batch of lemon curd. 

I think I missed the boat on the meyer lemons.  I LOVE meyer lemon curd. 

Lemon curd with regular lemons is *almost* just as good. 

Seedling check-in time. 

No peppers yet.  I know, patience.  I have them on a heat mat and it is set to 80 degrees. 

Almost all the broccoli sprouted. The cabbage and cauliflower is about 50 percent germinated. 

Those broccoli babies are so cute!

I lowered the lettuce plants today. 

When I looked at them this morning I noticed some sun scald on a few of the leaves. 

These babies were planted 17 days ago and sprouted about two weeks ago. 

I have two more shelves to fill up.  Well, technically two-and-a-half shelves.  I'm still reading and watching videos about soil blocking. I'm definitely feeling more confident about this seed starting method.

I'm pondering garden plans, still.  Coleous in the planters out front.  A butteryfly garden on the side. ... Morning glories in front of the solar panels. All possibilities are being considered.  Nothing set in stone yet. There is still several feet of snow on the ground. 

This is the first year I seem to be on the ball when it comes to cold stratification. 

I purchased a few new packets of flower seeds that I have struggled with the last several years. 

These are some seeds that I picked up this week.  I'm also going to try growing "fancy" radishes. I've been seeing a LOT about starting leeks and onions at this time of year, so I picked a packet of those up too. 

Poppies, morning glories, four o'clocks and a few other flower seeds are currently sitting in a container out in the garage. I'm going to do a bit more reading before I start these flower seeds.  

The poppies, however, I'd love to be able to start sooner than later.  One of my fondest wishes it to be successful with poppies.