Finally alive!

Spring of course officially started a while back but round these parts it was still snowy and cold. But this week we got a bit of rain and sun and everything is starting to poke it's little green faces out to see if it's really time to wake up. All the willows are shaking there green budded branches and the forsythias are as usual the first to put on their best and brightest colors. The lilacs are a bit more cautious then their sister, or perhaps their getting dressed up just takes a bit longer.

I love the smell of lilacs in the spring, my mother had a bush and when I arrived in Harbin one of the first things I noticed was the millions of lilac bushes. It was August then and not a flower to be seen, but I was dreaming of spring. Lilacs are apparently the city flower here, they are all over the city and there's even a lilac park on the outskirts of town. When the lilacs bloom this year I plan to go and I promise to take a million beautiful pictures!

In the meantime! An update is do on my own small garden. The tomatoes and peas are doing beautiful and I'm sure get bigger every day. I've separated the tomatoes and as soon as they fill these little bottle cups I've made them I shall stick them in the big pots. The peas are already growing wonderfully and I'm going to spend today find things for them to climb. My bell peppers which I thought weren't going to do anything have even started to sprout some secondary true leaves.  My only disappointment is that I won't be able to keep them all through the summer, but better things are yet to come and it has given me great hope for the years to come! Next year I hope to bring some really good seeds back with me and grow as many amazing things as I can! I can be an urban farmer of sorts even in China! Speaking of urban farming and or gardening here is a fun set of urban gardening videos that I found