Little plants everywhere

Soooo busy with seeding and transplanting, moving flats about to keep tender seedlings in the warmest places, keeping the fire going at night in the plastic high tunnel... it feels like I have a large ever expanding green family to take care of.

Most things start off in the house under lights, with the really fussy stuff like peppers and tomatoes germinating all cosy and warm on a plug-in heat mat.

Then the messy transplanting work  to individual pots takes place in the glass greenhouse.

There is supplemental electric heat at night when it's needed.

In the plastic high tunnel the salad greens and radishes are up .

Here's the nasty surprise we woke up to yesterday ! Two very different perspectives in this house...Jimmy : " Wow ! Look at the beautiful winter wonderland !'
Me : "Oh noooooo!! #**!!%*!
We put a woodstove in the tunnel a few weeks back, which has enabled me to plant in late march.

I'm so glad I got this garden tilled up the day before. That's last fall's composted chicken house litter, all winter's wood ashes, a layer of grass clippings and some patches of fall rye being mixed under. Good stuff.

And here is tomorrow's project. I was SO excited to open this package today! I think this material from fabric.com will be perfect to go with the painted compass in the cottage reno project 2 posts back. There should be enough to make two sets of curtains and a cover for the mattress in the kid's reading corner. Rain forcast for tomorrow...perfect!

Where did january go?

The month has flown by. I've been occupied with preparations for next summer mostly, cutting mats for our prints, building this and that, trying to get things out of the way before gardening season. The mesclun lettuce mix I planted a month ago under lights is outgrowing it's tray so today I transplanted these babies into the earth bed in the greenhouse. Beautifully warm in there with the bright sunshine streaming in, a perfect antidote to january's deep snow.

The leeks started at the same time are looking good, and four types of onions seeded last week are unfolding themselves from their trays.

I got started on a watercolor painting at last. First I wet the paper and gave it a wash of  dilute yellow ochre because I was thinking of the scene being in early morning warm light. I sketched out the scene and covered the light areas that will be the highlights, with masking fluid. Then came wet sloppy colors that were alowed to blend and merge.
When all was dry, stronger but still loose and wet colors were applied to the background.

Next came the shadows and local colors of the wharf and the boats.

Then I rubbed off the masking fluid, tidied up the edges and deepened shadows. I lifted off color to create the third building in the background and added some foliage texture. I hope to finish this in a few days, adding seaweed and rocks to the foreground and reflections on the water.