Kitchen Garden?

Morning glory in my backyard, last summer.

It's February in Michigan. That means change. Last week, we had a spell of 60 degree weather for 2 days, and it reminded me that spring will in fact come again. It was so nice to not have to see snow for awhile--it stayed warm enough, even at night, to melt the several inches around here and even do a fair amount to decimate the larger piles.

Then this morning we woke up to several incehs of snow again. I know it's more "normal" and that it's 26 degrees F now, which means that it's almost above freezing (32F=0C), which is practically a heat wave in itself in a northern state this time of year. But that little "taste" of spring made the drifts so discouraging to see.

So I'm trying to think spring thoughts, and trying to figure out what I want to do to bring spring on sooner.

I was thinking of maybe planting a kitchen garden. Not much, maybe one of those little kits from Walmart or some such. Or maybe just getting an African violet, since they're pretty hardy and I think even I could keep it alive. I could also force some blooms, iris or tulip or hyacinth. I just feel like I need something green and growing around me....especially since even the dirty green-brown winter grass is covered again.

Any suggestions? What would go best in a house with northern/western exposure? What is hardy enough to withstand me? What's most likely to be left alone by my Annie-cat, or at the very least won't kill her if she does ingest it? (She has a mean appetites for spider plants, which results in death before adulthood in all I've tried over the last 8 years.)

Thanks for your input.

The good (and some bad)

Getting the bad out of the way first--in the last week, a)3 more area plants have laid off workers, leading the town to 11.6% unemployment, making it THAT MUCH harder for my husband to find work; b)I turned 29 (for the first time) on the 31st, and while I wasn't sick that day as I traditionally am, I did get sick for the next two days, then; c)I fell on the ice, making the two days after THAT miserable; and d) I now have strep throat, resulting in a visit to the walk-in clinic for a throat culture and shot of penicillin in the hip. NOT comfortable, but way better than a 10-day course of antibiotics, of which I will forget to have 3 days worth, resulting in it coming back that much sooner.

Ok, bad go bye-bye now. Good: I was the recipiant of an RAK from a RTH group member! Woot!

Here's the low-down on the goodies from Jen, aka irunnaked on Ravelry (isn't that an awesome handle? cracks me up every time I type it.)

In no particular order:

Lion Brand Magic Stripes self-striping sock yarn!!

Sheepy stitch markers and a knitterly message card! "Knitting Brings me Peace"-- very appropriate.

Some GORGEOUS roving from etsy seller "Vampy," in an awesome red-and-black color theme. I can't wait to spin this and see how it will look, I hope my newbie skills can do it justice!

And finally, some absoultely beautiful hand-dyed merino sock yarn, "Shi Bui" from "Shibuiknits." I am in love with everything about it from the colorway to the twist and am making myself wait until I get to a ballwinder before I dig in, in an effort to finish the 1.3 billion projects I should be working on....but it's hard and I don't know if I'll make it.

Thank you again Jen, you really made my week!