It’s a long winter.

That’s what we tell each other when it’s cold and we can’t wait for the snow to melt, which it started doing a couple of weeks ago. Then, this week, right after the start of spring, we got snow again. I didn’t think it was that much, and couldn’t understand why my town plowed the streets for that little accumulation, but some members of my family could be heard miles around as they cried, “NOOOOoooooooooo!” to the skies.

It pretty much all melted by two days later.

New England Spring is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal

We’re starting the garden back up, and the seedlings were just transplanted to bigger pots. Here’s their first baby picture.

Seedlings is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal

None of today’s shots worked for me, so I’m bringing you some aftermath from the storm last week. I ended up with some nice shots of the snow. This one was so close to black and white that I went ahead and gave it the full monochrome treatment.

Snow Garden is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal

In keeping with the harvest theme of this holiday weekend, a picture of a “fresh fruit and juice bar” from the Berkeley Community Garden in Boston. The garden is a collection of plots that neighbors can use throughout the year to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers, et cetera. This garden plot is done producing for this year, but the sign added just the right amount of whimsy.

Fresh fruit and juice bar is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal

My sister gave us Barbara Kingsolver’s excellent Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life last year. It’s an exceptional book. Among its messages is a nice assessment of the amount of calories that must be expended to bring a single calorie to your dinner table. It’s a lot more than you’d think. As a New Hampshire resident, I’m appalled when I see advertisements for happy cows making the best cheese. I don’t think New Hampshire cows are grumpy (except when some city-dweller with a deer rifle gets confused during hunting season), and I doubt throwing California cheese in the back of a truck and hauling it several thousand miles makes for a better cheese eating experience.

I digress… this post is not about cheese.

Instead, it’s about our first garden.

We started with several types of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and peppers. We have beets, parsnips, carrots, and radishes going, and a slew of herbs, too. We’re planning on a raised bed garden, with containers on the deck for the tomatoes & peppers.Yesterday and today we planted seeds in indoor “greenhouse” trays to start the germination process. As the climate is so cold here, we have our 122 seedlings in training sitting on a germination mat in the sun room. We don’t heat that room except during our morning coffee, so the danger of freezing indoors has not yet passed!

Stay tuned – will update here on our progress.

Starting the garden is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal