Spring Planting Behind the Shop

It's seemed a bit cooler this spring, which I'm loving here in Toronto - it's a very short window of brisk and cool and sunny weather before the heat comes and ice cream seems to melt before you can lick it. We got some new spring plants to spruce up in front of the window outside the shop, along with re-potting some of the houseplants that are inside. It's one of my favourite things to do in the spring: the cleaning I can give or take - in fact, I'd quite happily get a professional cleaning company in to clean my entire home if I could. I mean I do hire a gutter cleaner every now and then (like this Clean Pro Gutter Cleaning Greensboro) just to make sure that my gutters don't get clogged up. Which I think is a fair point, as I might as well leave it to the professionals just to make sure that the gutters are totally fine. I don't want to end up with a damaged roof, because I forgot to check my gutters. Let's just face it, cleaning really isn't for me. But spring plants are! I love fresh soil and fresh leaves and green everywhere. No matter the room - a shop or a kitchen or a classroom - a green plant always makes it a bit warmer. Even, or maybe especially, in the city, it's nice to try and bring a bit of wildness around all the pavement and concrete. I love that Caleb is old enough now, and has been for a little while, to get his hands fully into the dirt. He helps with watering the plants, and moving them around the inside of the shop to get more light, adding a bit of soil to top up the pots. I'm glad to say he's not squeamish about getting his hands dirty, although I will admit sometimes I wish he was just a tiny bit more squeamish, especially when he's wearing clean clothes. I'm slightly worried he's picking up on my bad plant habits, like blithely transferring soil from various pots when I'm in need of some for a new plant, rather than getting new soil, or tipping the remains of nearly empty water bottles left behind in the shop into the plants, but I'm hoping he'll grow to appreciate the air around him. I didn't get a full picture of all of the plants plus Caleb this year, but for a real trip down memory lane, here are 2015 (Caleb 8 months) and 2016 (Caleb at a year and a half). This May, Caleb is two and a half, and I feel like time has swallowed me up whole and the tiny bear cub has transformed into a boy and I'm ready for it all to stop. He used to be so cute! And now it's dried yogurt and marker on his face. In a way, the fact and process of Caleb growing up, sprouting up, is a miracle like these tiny green leaves unfurling. Dirt and sun and water and before your eyes is magic. I've been comforting myself by buying slightly absurd amounts of washi tape. It's really getting a little out of hand. Jon is still suspicious about where the box of Santa washi tapes went to last Christmas - every once in a while he asks me if I have any idea where it went, while looking casually over at my stationery cupboard, which thankfully is filled completely to the brim and impossible to even consider burrowing into.