Grow, dammit

It's Seedy Sunday at work today, and the place is filled with local seed vendors, bee keepers, chickens... well, ok, just the one chicken. If you've never heard of Seedy Sundays, just think sustainability and local sources and you'll be on the right track.

It's cool. Lots to see and learn about.

It also frustrates the bejeebers out of me, to be honest. Not because of the event itself, but because it's March and around here that means NOT ENOUGH GROWING THINGS.

Things take a while to get going in the Great White North, in other words. The end of winter draaags on, and just when it seems like things are going to start blooming (and tree pollen allergy season's going to start, but that's a topic best left to when it actually starts) we get another snowstorm or a severe freeze. And, obviously, my annoyance builds.

To have tables full of seeds out there just makes me want to plant something, and there's no flipping point yet. I have a well-established gardening urge thanks to my mother and grandmother, and this time of year it becomes almost unbearable. It gets to the point some years that I attempt -- futilely yet again -- to start at least one flat of seedlings in my tiny apartment just so that I can feel like I've planted something. I always waste my time and effort when I do that because I don't have the right set-up at all, but it happens all the same.

Not this year, though. I'm going to keep myself from wrecking perfectly good seeds. Good plan, that, but it seems to have translated itself into a yearning to buy a lemon basil plant from one of today's vendors. Just to have, you understand. Lemon basil's tasty stuff...

Sigh. It really is a bit of a sickness. Next time I go into Dad's place you can bet I'll be prowling the yard looking for any instance of growth in the tulip and daffodil buds that  you've already seen on the blog. They're right next to the house, those plants; nothing else has had a chance to think about growing. Dad's yard is sheltered and holds the snow for a long time, so it can be an irksome place to be when you're desperately looking for any -- any -- sign that spring's a done deal and someday soon you'll be getting the garden (or in my case, balcony planters) in.

'Til then, though...



Any bets that I'll be going home with a lemon basil plant this afternoon?

Funny money

I'm sorry, but today's photo isn't pointless. I'll do better in the future, I promise.

I mentioned a few days ago that Dirty Moe finally found a new home (my father's been keeping me abreast of its travels around town, which I kind of think is funny). The fellow who bought it paid cash -- yeah, that surprised me too -- so since I've only just this weekend managed to make it into town (and not yet to the bank) I currently have more of these fellows to the left on hand than I'm used to.

Boy, is that an understatement.

As you can see, it's not all about the Benjamins here in Canada. That'd be kind of weird, seeing as Mr. Franklin doesn't have a whole lot to do with our north-of-the-border history. Unless you count the United Empire Loyalists having to leave after the Revolution, I suppose.

The fellow you're seeing in the photo is Prime Minister Borden, whom I'm just going to link to because I don't want to turn this into a Canadian history lesson. And... um... frankly, I don't remember too much about him. In fact, I'll probably go back to that link later and read it myself. He's been on the hundred for quite a while now (how long? Well, why not make this a completely linky post? Read this, if you're totally into the history of banknotes. I understand that there are people out there like that), but he's wearing a fairly different face these days.

It's the first of our new funny money, you see.

Funny money, Dee? Yep. I know that the Americans already like to kid us for our "Monopoly money", but this is funny money on a different scale. Like Australia (who've had it for years) and Mexico, we've started going polymer.

It's plastic money.

It's... different. I'm not against it at all -- not a monetary preservationist, me -- but it's definitely different. It looks different, it feels different, and it's going to act differently. It'll last a lot longer, true, but I can't help but think that it'll be a pain in the youknow for businesses for at least a while. Think of all the bank machines and counting machines that will have to be recalibrated. And for smaller businesses? Well, handling the Dirty Moe stack has shown me that (at least when it's brand new) it may cause one pretty significant problem.

Static.

It sticks together.

Not a great thing when you're dealing with stacks of hundreds. Or stacks of any denomination, for that matter.

Ah well. Not really my problem to deal with in the end. And I'm sure that by the time they roll out the new twenties (this is happening in stages. Hundreds last year, fifties next month, and twenties... sometime. I can't remember) they'll have most of the kinks worked out.

As I said above, I have no problem with new money. My mother, on the other hand, did. Or maybe she just got nostalgic, I don't know. When I was a kid she had a whole piggy bank full of silver dimes that she'd saved when the Mint stopped making them out of silver. When loonies (for those not in the know, our dollar coin has a loon -- the bird -- on it. Led to an inevitable nickname) came in, she collected one dollar bills until they were gone. Same thing for two dollar bills, when the toonie (sigh. We're so original with our nicknames.  Could have been worse, though. The two dollar coin has a polar bear on it. Beary, then? At the time, some suggested that it should be a Moonie, since it had the Queen on the front and a bear behind...) was launched.

I don't suppose she'd be collecting hundreds now, though. Gets a bit expensive.

Anyway. Which, as my two fans know, means that this post is wrapping up. I'll be saying goodbye to the Sir Roberts soon, since they're much more use to me in their electronic form these days than in all of their plastic glory. It was kind of neat to have met him, though.

I wonder if I'll be feeling the same by the time I'm carrying plastic Queens in my wallet?