In the Spirit of Growing
Apparently Easter weekend has become The Time to jump into new projects. Is it the birds singing merrily away in the big spruce? The way the trees seem just about ready to burst with blooms? It’s hard to say, but I’m seeing a pattern emerging.
Two years ago, Easter fell the day before Ponderosa was born - and thus, that weekend found us sending in final deposits, making lists of puppy supplies, and watching dog training videos. And then last year we spent the whole weekend digging post holes in our front yard for the garden fence we were building.
This year, today specifically, had us working on two projects.
The first was one we’ve been talking about for months, referred to (in hushed and reverent tones) as “The Back Pantry.” See, Eric and I cook a lot. A lot, a lot. And our kitchen is…not tiny, but modest for sure. We somehow managed to tuck a little island into the room which has given us enough counter space to get by, but cabinet storage has been a hot commodity.
We’ve had mixing bowls, cooking gadgets, and bulk foods simply overflowing from every nook and cranny from day one. And while I’ve been mostly ok to just let it be uncomfortable, at the beginning of the year Eric said he just couldn’t take it anymore - so we made a plan to pull out a wonky, broken cabinet on our little back porch and replace it with a tall wire shelving unit. The Back Pantry.
Now, this was never going to be a pretty solution - at least not to look at. But something I’ve learned over the past few years is that if the function of a space feels pretty, over time the visual beauty will follow. I find my studio to be a perfect example of this - it’s only now becoming a space you can walk into and call beautiful - but it never would have gotten to where it is without all the time I spent playing with function. Oh, what a balancing act it is!
Anyhow, for some reason we both woke up this morning and decided today was the day. I’m telling you - it’s just something about Easter weekend!
So the old cabinet was cleaned out. Taken apart and removed. The once-hidden remnants of unwanted rodent houseguests cleaned (bleh!) and their means of future entry barred (win!). New shelves went up. And voila!
I can’t tell you what it means to have all of our kitchen tools right at hand. No more shuffling for ingredients or taking everything out of a cabinet to reach something that’s been tucked all the way in the back. The whole project (or at least the bottom shelf) is also cat approved, so you know it must be good!
I think a big reason we both had The Back Pantry on our minds today was because I had penciled in today for starting tomato seeds (aka, enter project two!).
See, having cats means we need to have cat-proof places for fragile things. Case in point was last year, when Storm and Eleanore happily chomped the tops off of ALL the plants I started from seed in the space of ten minutes (after they realized they could reach them from a nearby table). I’d been scheming on a place to put this year’s tender sprouts where feline teeth and claws couldn’t reach - and it finally occurred to me that the top of a wire shelving unit would be just about perfect.
So when we started filling our shiny new shelves this afternoon, we left the top empty. And when those seeds we planted today (hopefully!) emerge from the soil, unfurling their first sets of pale green leaves, they’ll have a safe place to grow. In the next couple days, we’re going to get our hands on a shop light to hang from the ceiling and there these little tomatoes will sit until we move them out into the garden in May.
It’s so funny to me - the first post I ever made on this blog was about planting nasturtium seeds. About being scared they wouldn’t sprout, scared I’d kill them, scared in general. I think I’m still that way a little - always a worry-wart - but I also realized today that the things I’m scared of aren’t holding me back in the way they once did. There’s a little less worry about getting it right and a little more curiosity about the “what if.”
I wasn’t sure what was under/behind the cabinet on our porch - for all we knew, the space could have been bare to the studs. But we ripped it out anyhow.
I’ve never started tomatoes before. Or grown these varieties. Or tended to seedlings for more than a week or two before moving them outdoors. But without a second thought, seeds went into the soil.
We’ve got garlic coming up outside the front window. The grass finds a lusher shade of green each day. And me? It turns out I’m growing, too.
