Great pic of the mink, Margaret! They are difficult to photograph, they seem to be always moving.

I'll be starting my seeds indoors when the bag of potting mix I stored in the unheated garage has thawed-out.

The morning we saw the mink, DH had gone down to the lake to put our gear in the boat and the mink was in the boat next to ours, by the time I got there he was walking around the edge of the water, then swam over to the stump where I guess he had his den. I take my camera everywhere when possible.

I hate frozen potting mix, mine is in the shed so when I want to plant anything I put some in a plastic garbage bag and bring it inside to thaw.

Thawing potting soil here too!

I just winter-sowed 4 more kitty litter jugs of seeds today (hey, it's still winter for us in the north, despite tomorrow being the first day of spring, right??) Planted some columbine, amaranth, monkshood, nicotiana and delphinium. I don't have a lot of experience with winter sowing, so on a big learning curve here...

That is a really great photo of the mink !

Did anyone else see this pic of a weasel on a woodpecker's back -- apparently it was taken in the UK; I first saw it on our evening news a week or so ago, then found it on the internet

Thanks Sandy.

I hope your seeds produce lots of those lovely plants, only one I haven't grown is the amaranth.

Yes I have seen that photo, but in these days of photo shop I wonder how real it is.

"...in these days of photo shop I wonder how real it is."

That was my first thought, as well... but Snopes confirmed it as being real. Assuming it is, I'd say that weasel got a little more than he bargained for! (or maybe the two are friends and he often hitches a ride from "here" to "there" with that woodpecker )

June:- I have seeds for that "Compliments Mix" of Lobelia and also for the Chocolate Cherry Coleus.
I have not started either yet. I had started the Vulcan Red Lobelia, but they are struggling.
The Vulcan Red has bronze or dark foliage so that attracted me to it.

I need to look at my seed packets to see if it is time here. I am holding off til April 1 figuring that gives me at least 6 weeks before I can plant out. I put the flats and six-paks in my raised beds to hardy them up last year (I have plastic on the tops so they were protected from sun and wind). Worked really well even with the dahlias. They could stay out all day and a bit later all night too.

I'm holding off sowing my annuals for a while. Last frost in this area usually occurs towards the end of May. Caroline, I'm tickled that you ordered two of the same seeds as me. Great minds think alike! If I'd noticed 'Vulcan Red' lobelia in the catalog I would probably have ordered it as well.

I have not encountered any birds carrying small mammals here, but I did see the first robin of the season in my yard today. Unfortunately, we're forecast to get another blast of frigid Arctic air. The robins will have a hard time finding anything to eat after the ground freezes tonight. Now I wish I had bought some meal-worms for them the last time I visited the pet store.

June, that's about the same time as our last frost -- which REALLY makes me wonder why the USDA zone map now has me in zone 5 (until they revised things I was always zone 4)

The only thing I have started, other than 16 jugs of winter sown seeds, is my onions... peppers will be next, along with some herbs and flowers that I want to start in vermiculite, about April 1. Pretty much everything that can go out in colder weather I just direct sow -- carrots, beets, turnips, lettuce, peas, spinach, etc. I always get very impatient to start planting stuff indoors this time of year, but my plants have always done better when they're a little smaller rather than too big.

Zone maps - don't get me started! The USDA and Canadian Zone numbers don't match up, and anywhere around the Great Lakes the climate zones are messed up by "heat" stored in the water, not to mention lake-effect snow. I'm far enough inland that I don't get the benefit of the "warm" lake water, but close enough to get snowed-on. I live at a higher altitude too, which drives my Zone number down. My locality is known as the Hills of the Headwaters, because most of the rivers in south-central Ontario originate around here. The hills are mostly massive glacial moraines left over from various ice ages, but we do also have the Niagara Escarpment (limestone) running roughly north to south through the middle of the area. Speaking of ice ages, we're back into the freezer today. The temperature at dawn was -13C, and is coming up to -10C at midday (I think that translates to 8F and 14F). However, there is another sign of spring: the water coming out of my well has turned brown. Must go and change the water filter.

June, I wanted to give you more than one "thumbs up" there...

The Great Lakes region is definitely a bit problematic (shall we say) for the meteorologists...

June, you are the first person I have heard refer to brown water and tending the water filter/softener. I grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska and was 14 before I knew water wasn't brown. Went to California to visit relatives and the water in the tub was blue! We joked that Dad drilled the 14' well through the A-- end of a dinosaur. All fixtures were brown unless cleaned with polyzag a strong acid which eventually ate away the enamel.

I plated Spinach and lettuce inside, although not much. I want to try sowing outside as everyone says they are hardy. I want to plant in succession also to have continual fresh lettuce, broccoli, etc. I put the poly covers over the three raised beds to hurry along the thaw. They are pretty much snow/ice free but solid bricks of frozen earth. Also trying to decide how to amend them. I just added compost last year but not sure if that is enough. Read to avoid steer manure in favor of horse or chicken. I know that different vegies want different things so maybe other than compost and manure I will wait to before seeding and add what they particularly like in their section like bone meal or blood meal.

The well water has returned to its normal colorless state, much to my relief. There was one time when it turned black, and we had to tip Clorox bleach down the well to kill the bacteria bloom. This time, I think the well just had a small cave-in and it turned the water muddy for 24 hours. Mary Stella, your story of the blue water in CA reminded me that when I lived in south-east PA, we had "blue drip". Acidity in the well water dissolved the copper pipes, so the faucets dripped blue and the pipes developed pin-hole leaks, until we installed a system to harden the water. Here, the water is full of lime and iron, and it caused white deposits and rusty discoloration in sinks, toilets, and tubs until we put in a fancy two-tank water-treatment system to soften the water and remove the iron. The joys of living out of town, eh?

Despite the low temperatures and a dusting of new snow, a flock of about 200 grackles arrived here yesterday afternoon. I was afraid they would eat all my bird food, but they were just passing through and were gone this morning. If they were smart, they would have gone back south!

ech. At least our pipes were okay. Well, except for the build up in them of iron. I suspect the ID got smaller and smaller.

My garlic is sprouting -- and I saw my first robin today!!

Yesterday I had my first short trip out to my front top garden this spring, had surgery on my foot the 2nd of March and haven't been able to walk at all. Got the pin out and given permission to walk with a CAM boot Monday afternoon and was to sore to walk out Monday but yesterday I made it out and can see a few little bulbs starting to peek out. I can hardly wait for the blooms to come!

Hope your foot mends quickly Susie. Great that you are finally seeing some action in the garden.

Yay!! So glad to hear that you were able to get outdoors Sue!

Spring Beauty and yellow crocus are open today.

The worms are clearing out their burrows in the lane, so that's a good indicator of some unfrozen ground, in the sunniest areas at least.

We just returned from several days spent in the tri-corners area along the Ohio river in southern Indiana. It was nice to be able to see more types of spring flowers blooming there already, but also tough to come back to the sparsity of blooms here. The bees are out and about today though, and it's warming nicely already, so they should be popping up here for our own go-round very soon.