Getting serious now

May has come in like a lamb. I know, that was supposed to be March. But here in Saint-Aignan you never know how warm and pleasant May might be. The good news is that we've had several days of nice weather now.

Here are two survivors: Callie — two years in Saint-Aignan now —

and a pot of kalanchoe plants that made it through the winter.
I told her the plants are for her, but she's not allowed to eat them.

Callie is enjoying these beautiful days as much as we are. Maybe she remembers when we brought her home from the Elevage de la Vallée des Géants over in Montmarault on May 3, 2007. See Walt's post today for some pictures, or this one or the next one for some cute pictures from back then.

Tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers that we grew from seed
are now ready to set out in the garden plots.

Nice weather means planting the garden (finally). I checked out the 10-day forecast on weather.com, and it doesn't show any unusually cold weather between now and May 13. That's when we are advised to plant, normally, but we are going to jump the gun this spring.

A few days ago, there was a question about our barbecue grill
in a comment. This is it. Everybody around here has one like it.

The tomatoes, eggplants, and bell peppers are ready to be set out. I have hills and rows built to receive collard green, mustard green, sweet corn, and lima bean seeds. Yesterday when I was out with a spade, hoe, and rake mounding up the garden soil, it was actually hot. I had to stop and go have a sit-down.

The cold frames have been ideal for hardening off plants
and protecting them from the chill of the morning.

So then I worked on potted plants. I have many that over-wintered in the sun porch and garage. Some looked pretty sad, but once I took them out of the old pots, cleaned them up, and recombined some of them in new, bigger pots, I was pretty impressed.

Another survivor

We also planted impatiens and petunias in window boxes for the window sills and front deck. Those are the plants we bought at the market in Selles-sur-Cher on Thursday morning. The geraniums are in their planters too and out on the front deck, starting to grow.