Lightening up

No, I don't mean the New Year's resolution to lose a couple of waistline inches is kicking in.  As I left the office yesterday, the sky was still light in the west and this morning at 6:15 a.m. the sun was trying to lighten up the January gloom.  It is certainly not my favorite time of year, but one of the best things about mid to late January is the increasing daylight which counteracts the otherwise miserable combination of darkness and cold temps.   I celebrated by ordering far too many onion and shallot seeds for the coming gardening season.  Reacting to the various failures of the past season is my modus, and the  onion crops were by far the biggest fail in last year's garden.  It is back to transplanting from the cold frames this spring, since the direct seeding of most varieties resulted in less than optimum stands.  Beans will also be among the early seed orders this year, as except for the last seeding, there was a lot of fail in that category also.    Meanwhile, in fresh produce, the lettuce,cauliflower and broccoli deals are alive and well in the southwest as cold temps and a predicted harvest gap are driving prices to levels not seen in a couple of years.