"Is it SPRING yet?" she said with some desperation in her voice.

No, not yet.  My daughter got confused because it was actually quite warm on the weekend and we had alot of melting.  But now it has been snowing for three days straight.  Which is not really that unusual for Calgary - March is always our snowiest month.  Other places get spring rains, but since Calgary is so close to the mountains and at a higher elevation than most places, the spring rain turns to snow.  Oh well, at least it isn't too cold.  And at least the thrill of shovelling snow hasn't faded entirely!

But to help pace the winter months I do what must gardeners do - I start my seeds and I dream! Oh, the places the garden will go this year.  This is the year - the garden will be fantastic. I have been drooling over my design books and updated my garden plans - here is a drawing of my backyard as it is.  I would like to add a focal point to the back garden this year, but I'm not sure.  I have fantasies of getting an apricot tree.  I read somewhere that there was some new variety from Manitoba (who seem the make all the prairie hardy plants these days) that would survive in Calgary?  We'll see.  I'll keep dreaming.  Anyway...

You can see that the patio is quite large - but usually I fill it with pots and planters.  Besides he kids still have too much fun riding their bikes and scooters around and since we don't have a driveway, it is quite handy for chalk drawing.  But what to do with the expanse of grass?  Again the kids really like to play games on the grass and the square shape does encourage many games of soccer.  I'll keep thinking about it.

On a side note I came across a really cool site.  For as long as I can remember, my sister has loved the Unicorn Tapestries - only I didn't know they were called that.  I was following some links about two extraordinary mathematicians who were trying to delve into the mysteries of pi.  They are known as the Chudnovsky Brothers.  It is really cool if you have any interest in mathematics.  Anyway it turns out that they were instrumental in figuring out a way to merge the digital pictures that were taken of the tapestries.  This lead me to a site about the tapestries themselves.  Apparently these tapestries give some of the most detailed and colourful botanical diagrams from that time - showing the plants that were common at this time.  Here is the link.  It is really interesting that most of them are very familiar.  And also that the selection is rather limited.  We are so used to all of the different varieties of plants that are available from all over the world so it is really interesting to see what was around in England 500 years ago.  They really are beautiful.