Before the rain started today, it was chilly but lovely outside. Jeff and I made it to the Farmers Market, had some breakfast from the food trucks there and bought our weekly bounty of produce and bread from the wonderful vendors we have come to know so well.

I love productive sundays when laundry gets done and baked goods get made. I didn’t quite mind when the rain rolled in. My newly planted herbs and beans seemed to almost get greener as the rain came down.

I planted my bean sprouts and pea sprouts last weekend and bought some arugula, mint, thyme and parsley at last week’s farmers market (from the local nursery plant stand) and planted those to start off my 2012 garden. I still have my vegetable seedlings growing steadily on my window sill and if the weather gets warmer I will plant those on the balcony soon too.

I finished the evening with some banana bread (I used this recipe), some Mama-to-be Peaceful Tea and a glance at the calendar realizing this month is almost over and spring is finally here in so many ways.

This will be my second container/balcony garden. Last year was somewhat of a success and somewhat an experiment. All of the lavish and lovely gardens I had been seeing pictures of and reading about on my favorite blogs made me want to grow vegetables too and so I thought I would have a bounty of produce and save us hundreds of dollars in Farmers Market costs and I could write about my own amazing success being an urban gardener, blah, blah, blah… however, my bounty didn’t quite turn out the way I dreamed. I had maybe ten tomatoes, several beans and peas, about five mini peppers (which grew to be not quite mini but more micro mini) and three cucumbers. Our bounty was probably enough for one week’s worth of veggies. But, that being said, it was a lot of fun, I learned that I do not get enough sun on either balcony to plant many types of vegetables no matter how many times I move the container and herbs grow very nicely in certain areas and other herbs do not grow well at all, in fact they bring bad bugs and then die on me. So with all these lessons in mind, I am trying again (after a small burst of confidence I could plant and grow an amazing winter garden with absolutly no success at all)… I bought some herbs and have begun planting them and I planted my seeds inside as well and have already gotten some seedlings sprouting up out of the soil.

I plan on doing a lot differently and hopefully this year with my expectations set a little lower about yield, I will enjoy the process more and hopefully understand it a little better as well. Hooray Spring 2012! Looking forward to a new growing season!

This post is a long time coming. I know, I have been away for too long, but I had news that I wanted to share and just didn’t know when the appropriate time actually was. I think it was this blog who finally made me feel- “just do it, you know you want to tell everyone.” So here I am, telling the world (or the little fantasy world I have created of people from all over who are patiently waiting for my next posts) that I am expecting! My husband and I are expecting a little girl in August. I don’t like posting pictures of myself but I thought for documentation purposes I would share with you a belly shot. For my belly is growing rapidly, sometimes staying smallish on some days and other days feeling a lot larger than my 19 weeks…

So there’s the big news… the news of my life really. I have been waiting for this for a very long time. I’m anxious, I’m excited, I’m anxious, I’m happy, I’m tired, I’m anxious, I’m dreaming up all sorts of things and did I mention I’m anxious. 🙂 My Grandmother tells me if I feel anxious, I will have an anxious baby, so of course I am trying my very best to NOT be anxious, but when something you have been waiting for your whole life finally comes along and you’re having to grow it inside of your body, I dare you not to be a little bit anxious too.

My husband is excited too. But men are different. He may be feeling anxious, but he never shows it or talks about it. The whole pregnancy so far has been come what may, he’s cool as a cucumber. I caught him reading the other night (thinking it was a book about beer or Sherlock Holmes) and instead it was a book about becoming a father I had picked up at a yard sale. It made me smile. And I had to document it of course.

This is going to change a lot in our lives. But we are ready and we are excited!