Time to think about the garden

Today is Groundhog's Day and it's time to think about spring and the garden.  A week or so ago, my neighbor asked if I had planted any garden peas yet.  I have never had success with ones planted this early even though some charts say they can be planted in January in these parts.  I think you have to time them so that they get going between the coldest spells. 
In any case, it's time to make plans and buy seeds and just, in general, be inspired by all the possibilities.  I just finished re-reading a book that has once again inspired me.

In this book, Joan Dye Gussow discusses the food supply and how it relies so much on cheap energy (petroleum) for transport.  She discusses how farms and farmland are disappearing and what the ramifications are for producing food locally.  Her musings are interspersed with descriptions of her personal experiment of growing her own food and eating seasonally.  It's a very enjoyable book overall, even though it seemed to me she was overly obsessed with global warming.  The book has a 2001 copyright, and I don't even remember when I bought it.  I must have bought it on sale from a seed catalog.  In addition to a general index (which makes it possible to quickly find the parts in which she shares how she grew or stored particular crops), there is a recipe index.  I have tried some of her recipes and enjoyed her flavorful ideas for cooking the produce she grew.

While I'm in the planning and "being inspired" stage, I think other critters must be, too.  I saw this bad omen on my bathroom door yesterday! 

Yes, a stink bug!  Do you remember I picked more than 200 of them off the tomatoes last year?
So the battle lines are drawn, and without taking it for granted, I hope I will be in good gardening health come spring.