Happy Leap Day! But why?

 Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Except for February alone:
It has twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine in each leap year.

The first part of this poem is one that I recite every time I need to remember how many days are in a regular month; thirty or thirty-one. It's easy to remember February, even without the poem (which is good cause I actually needed to combine a couple traditional versions to make this one rhyme), because it's so unique.

Except it does prompt the question, "Why does February have fewer days than the rest? And why does it get an extra day every four years?"  For that, we need to look at the rest of the calendar, and a little bit of its history.

Portland Peppers - Perfect Pick!

Indoor planting season is upon us! Shannon, our sultana of the seed library, was kind enough to inform me that it's the perfect time of year to start a popular produce pick - peppers!

Even the seed packets look tasty!

Starting seeds indoors is easy! Or at least, so I'm told. I did not inherit my mother's green thumb, so I look to the experts, instead. But here's what they have to say!

1. Give yourself time.  Check your local weather service, gardening co-op, etc. to find out the last expected frost date for your area. Count backwards from there to find out the best time to start your seeds: it can take between 3 to 15 weeks for your seedlings to grow big and robust enough to replant outside.

2. Prepare your containers. Seeds can be planted in any shallow container that's about 2½ to 3 inches deep, with drainage holes (we don't wanna drown the poor darlings). They make special containers you can get in the gardening section, but you can make your own if you get creative.

3. Provide nutritious soil and sunlight. There are soil mixes you can buy that have extra nutrients added for starting seeds. As for sunlight, you want to set them in a location that stays between 65 to 75 degrees, with between 12-14 hours of light a day. If they don't get enough light, they could become "leggy" (tall and spindly without many leaves).

4. Ready your plants to go outside. Move them into a shady spot outside for a few days, then move them into a sunny spot a few hours each day. If the risk of frost has past, you can plant them outside after one or two weeks. (Don't rush!)

If you're interested in giving your seeds a head start, take a look at these articles for more information:

• https://www.countryliving.com/gardening/garden-ideas/a30753842/how-to-start-seeds/ (Similar info to what I put above, but with more detailed info);
• https://www.almanac.com/content/starting-seeds-indoors (Less detailed instructions, but with a great list of seeds that can/should be started inside).

As for seeds, well, come on in and check out our seed library to get things started!

What are you looking forward to planting this spring?  Do you have a green thumb, or do you leave the gardening to others?

Let me know in the comments!

Be Mine... or Actually, Don't

Valentine's Day is the season of love, they say. I'm sure everyone's seen the Valentine's Day hearts, chocolates, cards, etc. on display at our local stores for the past couple of months. I thought Christmas creep (you know, Christmas sales that start in September?) was bad enough, but I saw the Valentine's Day themed snack cakes go up for sale on December 18th...

So maybe, just maybe, these prolonged holiday sales seasons are diminishing a bit from the sentimental value of the holiday. And if you're not big on sentimentality or commercialism, then the holiday as a whole probably starts to stick in your craw a bit.

Enter the uniquely and quintessentially Victorian-era phenomenon: the vinegar Valentine.

This Valentine, for example, describing the recipient's smile as ridiculous in the eyes of the sender.
(Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

According to Annebella Pollen in her paper, ‘”The Valentine has fallen upon evil days”: Mocking Victorian valentines and the ambivalent laughter of the carnivalesque’:

Mocking valentines covered a vast range of ‘types’ and could be sent to neighbours, colleagues and members of the local community as well as to wanting and unwanted partners. Each was designed to highlight a particular social ill, from poor manners and hygiene to pretentiousness and alcoholism, sometimes with astonishing cruelty.
(from Abstract)

Pollen goes on to explain the ways that these cards, in the context of the socially permissive atmosphere around Valentine's Day, often used very pointed humor as a means of social control.

Imagine how mad you must be at someone to go to the effort of buying a card specifically to shame or insult them! It's no wonder that not many of these have survived to be seen today - if I received such a card, I certainly don't think I'd be saving it to remember later.

I'm not sure that "he likes me" is the typical takeaway from these sorts of Valentines...
(Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson )

Of course, to those who have no love for Valentine's Day, or at least no one special to share love with, such cards might be a novel and amusing concept. And who knows? Maybe not everyone looked at them as pointed insults, but rather playful jabs to be shared between family and loved ones. Think less of bullying and more of playful banter.

In any case, it's equal parts funny and reassuring to see that, even in the days before Facebook, YouTube, and other online forums, people have always left mean, anonymous comments, and somehow we've all managed to keep moving forward.

What do you think? Are vinegar Valentine's a fun way to poke fun at your friends, or just plain mean? Should Hallmark come out with a "vinegar" line of greeting cards? What other unconventional things do you think we should do on Valentine's Day?

Let me know in the comments!

(If you would like to know more, here is the bibliography for the research paper I referenced earlier:

Annebella Pollen (2014) ‘The Valentine has fallen upon evil days’: Mocking Victorian valentines and the ambivalent laughter of the carnivalesque, Early Popular Visual Culture, 12:2, 127-173, DOI: 10.1080/17460654.2014.924212
Citation copied from publisher.
Regrettably, PDL is not currently able to make the full text of this article available to patrons.

However, you can also find additional information on Wikipedia, which also cites the same article, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar_valentines )