Some garden photos - and a rant

I noticed how pretty the trees in my backyard were looking.

The apricots have already blossomed - I'm hoping that the sudden drop in temperature a couple of weeks ago didn't damage them.

However the cherry and peach trees are looking good, and we have a little colour in the front yard too.


And to change the subject completely, I couldn't believe what I saw at the fruit and vegetable store today. Potatoes, individually wrapped in plastic. The label said that by microwaving them in the plastic wrapper, you'd get that great oven-baked taste!

OMG, I was not impressed. I have recently been making an effort to avoid bringing excessive plastic into my house and will generally choose the loose produce over the prepackaged stuff, putting it into my cart as it is, or in a net bag that I made. This gross example of overpackaging and unnecessary use of resources amazed me - as did the price. These potatoes were a bargain at two for $3. And they weren't that big. Someone is making a big profit on those.

In addition to the wastefulness, I was grossed out by the thought that people would be putting these in their microwaves (which should have been outlawed a long time ago) and cooking them in the plastic, which is known to transfer harmful chemicals to the food. I feel a letter to the store coming on.

Progress - with the sock and the garden

Wahoo, I finished the first sock last night in the Berroco Comfort sock yarn. Being vegan, I don't use wool, so was very glad to find this yarn at Wool and Wicker in Steveston when I was at the coast a few weeks ago. It's 50% acrylic, 50% nylon, so will hopefully be hard-wearing.

Pretty colours. Knowing how one can languish between socks, I immediately cast on for the second sock and have completed a fair amount of the ribbing at the top of the sock.

The weather office forecast 20 degrees for this weekend, and our thermometer did show it reached 24 Celsius on our deck this afternoon. It was hot work, raking the lawn. There were lots of walnut shells (the walnuts that I left on the ground last autumn have been cracked open by the magpies and crows and eaten) and dead leaves, and now that it's been raked and many wheelbarrow-loads have been dumped at the bottom of the garden, it all looks much neater.

I was delighted to see that the violets are spreading further afield too.

I will take my blistered hands (unaccustomed to hours of yardwork!) out there again tomorrow - I think I will be heaving rocks, so that'll be my workout. The weather is supposed to be hot again.