April Continues to Blow Me Away

The front walk this week

Who knew that columbines could become borderline invasive.  That's what all the purple is on both sides of the pathway, the result of scattering seeds willy nilly fall after fall.  We do have lots of nice hybrid colors, dark purple, blue, pale lavender, plum.  But too many of all of them, so this season we'll be removing some plants after they finish blooming and won't be scattering seeds.

It's been a spectacular April.  Lots of rain making things lush and happy, enough warm weather to get things blooming, but no so much to make them finish too quick.  I continue to revel in the glory of it and am eternally grateful to live in such a fabulous place.

A typical days harvest from the asparagus patch

Needless to say they are daily on the plate.  Favorite combos; asparagus and eggs and/or muenster cheese and/or mushrooms. I've been eating piles of them blanched in salads and the skinny ones get munched raw in the garden the moment they are picked.

 

Illini Warrior, the first peony to bloom

I've waxed poetic in these posts many times on the glories of the peony, my favorite flower, queen of the garden.  The next two weeks should be peony filled, I'll try to be better about posting. We planted a lot of new varieties a couple of years ago and they are finally large enough that they should put on a very good show this year.  This Illini is so red it looks superimposed in this photo!

Radishes just say spring don't they?

Especially these Easter egg radishes in their fancy colors.  Lots of these have been going into the salads along side the asparagus.  I'm also fond of slicing them thin and layering them onto home baked crusty white bread spread with fresh butter and sprinkled with salt...

The lilac is in full bloom

It's funny how small this bush looks in this picture.  The scent it casts is anything but, you can smell it all over the yard and inside the house. At night the fragrance wafts over and into the windows by our bed, making for sweet dreams.  That chair right there in the photo, that is where I want to be sitting as often as possible, surrounded by the glorious soft scent of lilac.

The Endless Work of Spring

 Traveler red bud,and Prairie Fire crab apple, bright even on a dreary day

Spring has taken over my life!  Partly too much work associated with my job,  I've been recruiting and enrolling and orienting new families at the community gardens and we are now up to 35 families with 77 kids gardening at 2 locations, I only have 3 garden plots left to fill.   Between work and having a thousand chores to do here at home, I seem to be paralyzed sometimes, I just want to wander around the yard and soak up the beauty of it all, but that doesn't get work done.  Add to that the fact that I haven't been sleeping well, (I think it is a combination of stress and menopause), I am waking up all too many nights at 2:30 and cannot seem to get back to sleep.  Sorry, but 3 to 4 hours of sleep just doesn't cut it, too many mights in a row like that and I get a bit crabby, not to mention exhausted.

I did manage to sleep last night and to achieve my one goal for today which was to get my little tomatoes stepped up into larger pots. I now have 46 tomato plants, about 12 varieties.  I will start to harden them off by moving them outside during the day and back in at night to prepare for setting out in the garden in about 2 weeks.  This is about twice what we need, but I always start too many.

Tonight we had our first batch of asparagus, cooked up with three large spring onions and a half pound of shrimp, simple and sweet, so yummy served over rice.  We also had our first spring greens, baby lettuce, arugula, spinach and red Russian kale, all mixed up into a tender and delicious salad to go along side the main dish.

In my not spare time I have been doing things like culturing cream with buttermilk.  The yield from 3 quarts of cream; 1 and a half quarts of buttermilk, a cup of creme fraiche and a pound and a half of the best butter I've ever tasted.  Tonight we had an appetizer of butter spread on our homemade white bread, topped with thin sliced french breakfast radishes, sprinkled with salt and pepper. Yeah.

 

So many textures and colors

 

The dogwoods are in full bloom now, spectacular against the blue, blue sky

These are the images of scenes that stop me in my tracks as I am crossing the yard with another wheelbarrow of mulch, or a shrub to find a place for, we just can't seem to stop bringing plants home even though we are running out of room. Oh the conflicts of springtime, so many plants, so little time...

First Day of Spring

Weeping Plum

Peonies Bursting Forth

Candelabra Magnolia

 

Baby Cows

 Easter Egg Primroses

Bouquets

A Long Shot

 

The beauty that surrounds us here leaves me pretty much speechless.  All I can say is, I'm so glad to be alive in such a fantastic corner of this world.  Spring fills me with joy, hope and awe.

March is almost half over!

Fragrant plum blossoms

We planted two plum trees last spring.  Methley and Ozark Premier.  The Methley is self-pollinating the Ozark needs the premier to cross-pollinate its flowers to make fruit.  I'm not sure which is which, one of those things I meant to write down...  This one is in full bloom, its branches absolutely covered.  The other tree has nary a flower on it, not sure if its light or what, but we hope it gets with the program next season so the two will be able to help each other out and we'll actually get some plums on both.

The weather has been conducive to lots of outdoor activities and garden preparation.  I planted the spring vegetables a couple of weeks ago and the seeds are slowly starting to sprout, now that we are heading towards the full moon, more begin to emerge.  Arugula, as always was the first to sprout, then lettuce, turnips, radishes and kale, now the peas and beets are starting to show too.  I'm still waiting on the carrots, they are always the slowest to germinate.

These cabbages, planted late last fall, wintered over and are really starting to head up now.  They look so jolly out there, like they are wearing bonnets.  We've also been working our way through the flower beds.  It's arduous cleaning out the perennials, cutting them back, fertilizing and weeding, mulching and trimming.  But when its done it looks so very fine and tidy, like a fresh coat of paint or mowing the lawn, a new layer of dark leaf mulch really spruces the place up.  All the young green plants are starting to shoot up, day lilies, columbines, daffodils,  phlox, asters and mums.  The peonies are sending up there sexy red bud tips.  Hostas and ferns are still hiding below, waiting for slightly warmer days before they peek out to find the light.

We'll have to get at least two more truck loads of leaf mulch to finish the job, maybe three.  There are too many flower beds, and plantings around here to keep up with, but we are making progress.

Fire Wood Hauling Workout

The fire season has been the most intense I remember in a while.  The cold weather has made us go through our wood stash fast.  Today I was gathering kindling again, this time of year we need more as we often let the fire die down during the day.  The temps are warmer, and we are low on wood, no point wasting it.  If we stoke the stove first thing in the morning and then bank the coals and ash against the side mid to late morning, there will be coals in the evening when we want to fire it up again.  But that doesn’t always happen, so more kindling is needed to restart the fire at the end of the day.

Wood hauling has declined this week.  Instead of a cartload or two pulled from the far side of the yard to the near side of the yard where a large wood rack sits under the deck and a smaller one up top, this time of year, it’s a wheelbarrow load or two.  When we are filling both racks in December and January, we work together loading, hauling, stacking.  To get the wood up the ten steps to the deck we use a large burnt orange nylon bag with stout handles that we can fill with 12 or 13 logs and each grab a handle and climb the stairs together to load the rack up top.  We switch sides midway to keep from over working one arm.  

Now I carry the wood up in my arms by myself, I see the extra trips up the steps with smaller loads as a part of my wood hauling workout; lifting, reaching, toting and moving all those logs.  After that activity I think to myself, time to start upping the abdominal work to protect my back from the digging, bending and hauling that will be coming up as we begin to prepare and plant the vegetable garden and clean out the flower beds.

By mid- spring the wheelbarrow will sit at the bottom of the stairs and we'll just run down and get an armful as needed.  When there are days and nights with no fire we'll reach a point of running across the yard with the big orange bag and just grabbing enough for bedtime and coffee time on the last cold nights.  Soon enough there will be no fire at all.  

The promise of spring is in the air, the days are warming, yet after dark it’s still clear and chilly.    At the moment, the moon is bright.  I’ve been watching it as it rises, before the sun has set, about ¾’s full and so brilliant, even in the blue sky.  By Friday it will be full and shining in the bedroom window in the wee hours, pulling on our lunatic instincts, keeping us from a deep sleep as we roll and toss thinking of the projects and chores before us as our sap begins to rise.

Spring is around the corner

MIA once again- it's been a very busy few weeks since my return from the coast.  Work is picking up steam with spring fast approaching so I've been busy with preparations for the fourth season of the Growing Healthy Kids garden project.  We have our first big organizational and planning meeting this afternoon with about 25 returning families and a few new folks, it will be a room filled with kids, parents and hopefully lots of energy to plan our upcoming workshops and workdays.

Last weekend I had the good fortune to attend a Growing Communities workshop in Charlottesville, Virginia sponsored by the American Community Gardening Association.  An action packed 2 days learning tools and techniques for organizing communities around the development of community gardens.  A fantastic group of diverse folks were there, many from Charlottesville but also California, New York and New Jersey!  I got a ton of great ideas for doing more leadership development with our garden families as well as ideas for spearheading more community garden work overall in the Chapel Hill area, it was inspiring.

I stopped into Roanoke to visit my friend Carol on the way home and we had a big time dining at a place called Local Roots, specializing- you guessed it- in local ingredients.  I enjoyed a slice of head cheese topped with a sunny side up egg as an appetizer and brook trout with parsnips, potatoes, kale and bacon for my entree, oooh yummm.  Sunday morning was cool and clear and we walked for about three hours around the Roankoke reservoir, birdwatching and sharing each others company.  Pileated and red headed woodpeckers were our companions as we wandered through the hardwood forest. 

I wound my way home starting with a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the views were spectacular and it was a slow journey as I kept stopping to take in the view. 

On the tail end of winter this is a recent scene from the dining table.  We've been making lots of slaw and raw veggie type salads, this version had grated raw beets and carrots, green cabbage and fennel, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice; crunchy, colorful and tasty.  We served the salad along side a taco of sweet potatoes and zucchini sauteed with onions, chile powder and cumin, topped with sour cream.  The stack includes a seed catalog, mushroom catalog, and a book I found at the library on cooking with winter vegetables.  I think I read 8 slaw recipes alone!  It's got loads of good ideas for using roots.

This week is promising to bring some very spring like weather at last.  Warm and sunny days are in the forecast so I'm hoping to get into my own garden for a few hours.  It's time to prepare beds for the 180  onion plants and 5 dozen leek plants I am expecting delivery on next week and also it is pea planting time! 

The sun is currently shining so I am going to close this post and head out into the day to enjoy a bit of it before the big meeting this afternoon.

Home Again

The scene on Saturday night outside Marthas, once the snow had stopped 

We were tucked up inside, warm and cozy, well fed and watered.  I retired to my upstairs parlor and watched a movie. The Dark Knight- Batman, with a very scary Joker played by Heath Ledger.  Sunday morning we woke to bright sunshine and clear skies.  After a fine breakfast of waffles, turkey bacon and baked bananas, I swept the 4-5 inches of snow off the car and bid a farewell to my kind hosts.  Heading out, the roads were still a bit snowy but passable and I ventured forth across the tall bridge and out to Bogue Banks and Fort Macon.

Fort Macon is a state park with a brand new visitor center.  I spent more time exploring than I thought I might, I checked out the beach, so strange with snow covered dunes.  In the visitor center I watched the film about the forts history, built in 1823 and occupied by both confederate and union soldiers during the Civil War and US troops during WWII.  They had a great exhibit about the first doctor at the fort who was also an ornithologist and wrote one of the first comprehensive bird guides of the southeast.  There was also an exhibit on barrier islands that included models of all the rails and buttons you could push to hear the clacking, raspy calls of each species.  Then I toured the fort proper, a fascinating 5 sided structure with a mote and inner courtyard.  More exhibits there of how the soldiers lived during various periods.  If you're ever out that way I recommend a visit.

I then headed down island to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium and checked out the fishes there.  My favorite display was probably the three otters, busily swimming and playing round and round and round their space.  I hate to see them captive, but they seemed pretty happy.  I could watch them for hours.  The rest of the displays were less exciting to me for some reason, perhaps because they are so similar to those at the Fort Fisher Aquarium where I visited last year and which I think has bigger better tanks and slightly more modern exhibits.  But I did enjoy it and really liked watching all the kids checking it out, they are so filled with wonder when they can get right up to the glass and watch the big fish swim by.  Adults become big kids too as they put their hands into the touch tanks to feel the backs of the rays and skates as they zip by.

Finished with all there was to see at the aquarium and happy to have completed 5 hours of coastal site visits for my EE certification I headed out to walk the beach before getting into the car for the 4 hour trip home.  Save one woman playing with her dog I had the whole snowy beach to myself.  It wasn't too windy or cold and the ocean was very calm.  It was great to just walk and watch the sky and water for a while.

I was tired when I finally arrived home about 8 PM and was so happy to sleep in my own bed again with my babe by my side.  More weather is predicted for this week, this winter may well go down as one of the snowiest ever.