Rain Day Indoor Activities

Whenever Oscar comes in from the rain he immediately runs upstairs and voraciously scratches and bites at the carpet in my office. I love the sound. After walking in the rain for an hour today, all this wet dog wanted to do was snuggle. But since he also smelled like wet dog I tried to keep a wide berth. He’s got the right idea though, rainy days were made for snuggling and other indoor activities. Following are a few of our favorite ways to pass rainy days.

Indoor Gardening

Starting seeds indoors allows them a gentler and more sheltered gestation. It’s also fun being able to closely monitor their progress. You don’t need to go out and buy special propagation trays. Paper egg cartons were born to serve this function. They’re perfectly compartmentalized, and when it comes time to transplant the seedlings, the carton will biodegrade. When planting be sure that none of the carton sticks up above the surface of the soil as this can wick moisture away. I prefer to completely tear all the paper away and plant just the little puck of soil and seedling.

Pictured above is an improvised cloche that I am particularly proud of. It’s a Starbucks cup and a mini plastic bag that came with a free beer sample they were handing out on the street. This combo gives me a kick. Sheltered within is a precious baby shiso seedling.

Bathroom Ballet

One of my favorite home alone activities. So many mirrors, so many supporting surfaces. Once when I was a kid I did bathroom ballet using the towel bar as my barre. It was not strong enough and fell off of the wall (loudly).

Lazy Food

For lunch today I had blueberry jam on toast followed by cold leftover spaghetti straight from the fridge. Why do we love Bonne Maman jams so much? Apart from tasting delicious, I think it’s because they’re inexpensive and done really well with a great name, packaging, and they’re French.

Happy first day of June everyone!