The dawn chorus, and we have a winner

This morning, I woke to birdsong, and it took me back to when my children were small and watched Winnie the Pooh.  Those were gentle days.  Often, I sat down with them because I loved Rabbit’s garden savvy (although I couldn’t understand how a gardener could be so grumpy, especially a gardener in England).  I adored Owl who wanted to sing the dawn chorus, but of course, he couldn’t.  In fact, he was dreadful.  I tried to find the episode on YouTube for you, but it wasn’t there.

The sound outside my bedroom window tells me spring is on her way in spite of the snow forecast for tomorrow.  Yes, snow, but let’s talk of happier things.

Thanks to everyone who entered the great glove love giveaway.  From all of your comments I confirmed:

• Gloves protect our hands from stickers and stinging nettles.
• Our hands and fingernails stay cleaner.  No yucky dirt and bacteria to scrub away.
• They save us from thorns and stinging bugs.
• We are less likely to have stained hands from plants like the brown/green walnuts (which are, btw, a great anti-fungal if you crush the green skin and apply it).
• Stones don’t cut us when we create stacked walls.

I can go on and on.  So, why don’t we all wear them?  Believe me, I understand, and sometimes, I pull off my gloves.  In spite of improvements made over the years, for women gardeners especially many gloves are still ill fitting.  We can’t “feel” the soil or the seeds beneath our fingertips  I can’t blame anyone who doesn’t wear gloves.  It was only when my hands began to age from the sun, and I was stung a couple of times by blister beetles and assassin bugs that I began to wear them.

I received some wonderful comments like this one from Joannie:

“I have a special pair of gardening gloves given to me by my late and wonderful mother-in-law. I only use them when I work in my flowers (and not in the vegetable garden) because she loved flowers so much. When I wear them, I feel as if she’s there, enjoying the beauty of the garden with me!”

As always, WiseAcre amused me:

“No Fair. I don’t Tweet and my face would ruin any book it was in. If I said I wanted a pair so my wife could have hands as lovely as yours do I get any extra points?”

But, I finally went with Deborah R.:

“Last year, I started gardening and I admit that I did a lot of gardening in ignorance.  I did, however, usually wear gloves.

“I discovered some vines that suddenly sprouted in my front garden. I pulled on my gloves and pulled them up, discovering more and more as I went along.  Later that night, my arms started itching.  Poison ivy.  Fortunately, I had it only on my forarms – my gloves saved my hands that day.”

You know I have all the empathy in the world for someone who’s suffered from poison ivy.  I abhor poison ivy.  Also, Deborah tweeted the contest, so she got double points.

Thanks to everyone who entered or who just commented on how much they love their Ethels.  I used my promo code RDR10 and bought the rose gloves for myself this year.

You can use it too.  I believe it works for a week.

Happy gardening, and Oklahomans, just curl up with a book tomorrow and ignore the beastly weather.  Next week looks great.