spring has sprung!

two weeks ago, we hoped in vain for a little sign of spring. the barest whiff of spring air one day got me thinking "garden shop" and, after daycare, cole and steve and i took a trip to the garden shop. 

from holdom skytrain station the garden shop on lougheed is a mere 5 minute walk, if you are without impediments - things like a drenching rain and wind storm, a stroller, a rain shield, a toddler, inescapable and constant snack demands, thrown soothers, a lone semi-functional umbrella for three people and a downtrodden attitude. if you are suffering it feels like a half hour slog through some kind of fortitude-measuring wasteland. a smarter person might have abandoned the plan at the first sign of rain and toddler grumping, but i held out hope that the fun parts would outweigh the challenges. not so! also i'd promised cole we would go and that kid has a memory like an elephant! suffice to say that day was not the most enjoyable. 

but lo and behold, on the most recent monday afternoon the sun was shining and we tried again. the heavens smiled upon us and we had a wonderful time. there was (inexplicably) an old VW beetle out front of the garden shop for cole to practice his driving (we went to science world and the trip involved a lot of parking and fiddling with dirty dashboard components). inside we found 'butternuts' the cat, the somewhat surly resident ginger stray. cole got two pats in before getting hissed at, at which point he discovered the mason bee houses to thrill his wee fingers. we selected herbs and seeds, coco spotted the rosemary for me (he's a natural gardener, i think!), he ran laps around the aisles and spied on tanks of baby koi. cole adopted a toy bird for one of the pots at home and i managed to select only one flat of plants to carry back on the train. it was a grand time indeed.

 

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