Robins and Leeks

More wet and cold today doesn't feel very spring like, but I'm happy for the rain. Yesterdays sunshine got Mr. D out pushing the mower through the thick, lush grass, first time this season. This morning a flock of 35 hungry robins landed there to see what they could find in the new mown lawn. The most common of the thrushes, I take them for granted but they're a handsome bird with their red breasts, dark heads and white spectacles. Three flickers poked around under the apple trees and bluebirds, chipping sparrows and juncos were checking it all out too. We watched a pine warbler gathering feathers off the ground under the bird feeder to carry back to its nest, and I saw a chickadee swoop into the nest pot with something white and fluffy that looked like a ball of cotton.

I'm excited about these leeks. We started them last July, from seed I had collected some years back. Set the green toothpick-size shoots in the bed in September and slowly hilled the soil and mulch up around them as they grew. I'm hoping for long thick white bases on these babies. I remember the last time we grew leeks, the deer ate them down to the ground during the winter so they never got any real size on them. So here's one more thing we can grow without molestation, thanks to the deer fence. Some are big enough to harvest soon and then through the spring and early summer. I'm imagining what I can do with asparagus and leeks; quiche, omelets, grilled and tossed in vinaigrette, or leeks and potatoes, leeks and sugar snap peas, leeks and spinach....