what is the point...

after what was without doubt one of the most soul-draining Winters of my life, i was really looking forward to the arrival of Spring. it seems to finally be here.

him: uhm... Spring happened like two months ago.
me: that is adorable. 

then i just shake my head in pity that he thinks this is what Spring is meant to feel like. 

still, while it has been mostly chilly, wet, and grey with hardly a trace of sunlight to distinguish night from day, the temperature has remained above freezing for a few weeks now. i think it is safe to call this season Spring.

i am not abandoning my warm blanket just yet though, especially not with an "aggressive cold front" in the forecast. and, no... i have no idea what makes a cold front "aggressive", but that sounds like a meteorologically-polite way of warning us that it will feel like "not quite Spring".

this is the time of year when my fancy usually turns to thoughts of gardening. we are going to try something a bit different this time around. there is only so much space to be had when your garden consists of however many containers of soil you can squeeze onto a (moderately-sized) balcony. as a result, for every new thing you add to said space, you have to abandon all plans of growing some other thing.

i usually scoff at the idea of growing flowers. you know... all those brightly colored plants that serve no purpose other than to be pretty and to bring joy. yuck! however, i allowed myself to be talked into giving it a try for this year's balcony garden project. so, off we went to the garden center, and home we came with an assortment of pretty, colorful things.

see that?

it is called a dahlia, and it is beautiful. now, i ask you... what is the point of such a useless thing?

we also picked up a variety of small annuals, which i planted in a couple of the troughs on the railing. the troughs are mostly symmetrical, except one has red snapdragons...

 

and the other one has yellow snapdragons. OCD may require me to run out in the middle of the night and remedy this kinda sorta but not quite symmetry.

there are also flowers in one of the ten-gallon containers that would otherwise be holding edible things. i expect them to explode into a lovely display of color... should we ever get anything resembling actual sunshine.

i did manage to squeeze in a few tasty things for future culinary adventures. so far, we have three types of tomatoes, two types of peppers, and an assortment of herbs.

oh... and i also bought a few strawberry plants which i will add to the remaining trough before the end of the day. strawberries usually do pretty well in containers, and i look forward to the dramatic effect of them hanging from the railing. naturally, there will be many frustrated reports of damage-by-squirrels in the coming weeks.

[i transplanted the strawberries and grabbed a few pictures before pressing the "publish" button, so i will insert them in here for your viewing pleasure.]

if you look at the center of a strawberry flower, you will see the start of a tiny strawberry. i call it... future strawberry.
 

while i do feel a touch of sorrow at having lost the rest of my precious... precious... garden space to pretty, flowering things, we do have a few indoor plant adventures planned for the near future. that should keep me distracted for a while. then there is the furniture to be reupholstered... teaching him to sew... and a couple rooms that (still) need to be painted.

this would be a good time to sit back, have a sip of my coffee, and look out at the pretty, useless things. i can get used to this.