This past weekend was the first warm and sunny weekend we’ve had so far this year here in Chicagoland, so we took advantage of the nice weather by doing some outdoorsy type of stuff (when we weren’t busy playing Grifball, that is).

Since the forecast is saying no more below-freezing temperatures at night (yay!), this meant that I spent the time gardening… well, pseudo-gardening. There are not a lot of options — or room — for a wanna-be gardener living in a townhouse, so we’re kind of limited to plants that can grow in pots.

This year I’m trying to grow some strawberries, and I also spread some basil and cilantro seeds in a long planter to see what comes up. I hope something grows — those are two of my favorite herbs and it would be nice to have some readily available.

I put my bonsai (the Japanese maple) back outside as well. It had been wintered in the garage and despite some setbacks (it was a little too warm in the garage) it seems no worse for the wear. My little pine though… it didn’t survive the winter. I’m sure if I had remembered to water it it would be fine.

I hope I manage to keep everything alive throughout the season… plants usually don’t live long around me.

Monday I went up to the Mitchell Park Conservatory (AKA: The Domes) with my mom and sister. It was pretty cool, and I got a chance to try out my infrared filter on some greenery. Unfortunately I was lazy and left the tripod in the car, and because of that only a few of the IR photos turned out (on the D70 they require long shutter speeds, and handholding the camera resulted in blurry photos).

You can view the whole set here, but I’m posting a few below.

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