Three Plus Two

The Small Things: First Asparagus

I wish I could say this was my harvest, but it is not.  My asparagus is still tucked in its bed, not yet awake, and the new crowns I ordered to expand the bed have been backordered and may not arrive.  (Barr's Mammoth seems to do better in my cold yard than the all-male types, but this will be the first year I actually get to taste it... I hope.)

This asparagus is from my favorite local farm store.  The store's over a half hour away, so I don't always get down there.  Which is a shame, because they have great local milk, too.  I also picked up some of their spinach, since mine is just putting out its first real leaves, and I wept bitterly (well, I thought about it anyway) that all their rhubarb had sold out for the day.  Someone who shall remain nameless trammelled our lone rhubarb plant, and I haven't seen it back this year.  I think it's been tilled up.

The kids helped in the garden quite a bit this weekend.  Gareth and Katydid planted 60 onion plants a piece, and Gareth planted potatoes, too.  Farmerboy and Pop helped me plant leeks.  Our leeks did not get off to the best of starts last year, but they made a mean potato-leek soup in January.  I'm hoping to get some bigger leeks this year if we actually take care of them.

Tonight I am looking forward to a crustless quiche with mushrooms and asparagus, a spinach salad on the side, and pear slices -- to make sure that the twins will at least eat something.

The Small Things: Inside and Out

The Small Things: Nature Basket

Katydid and Farmerboy went on a nature walk the other day with instructions to bring back little pieces of what they saw.  Instead of heading into the woods, they stuck to the yard.

Here they have:

• a piece of a birch branch that fell
• cones from our "pine" trees, which we have tentatively identified as Norway spruce
• various catkins
• bracket fungus

They also brought back a willow branch, but we put that in water in the kitchen window.  (Alas, we did not take a picture of it then, and now it is drooping.)

We're thinking of making a nature table (see Dawn's nature corner, too), if we can free up a little space.  But right now having the basket is a simple solution to the combined problems of limited space and eager two year old hands.

The Small Things: Katydid's Spring

Katydid leaves a trail of what she finds beautiful or important on my camera.

The hyacinth blooming by the driveway.

A daffodil in the same bed.

A flat of pansies waiting to be planted.

Our forsythia bushes are blooming for the first time in three years. (I thought they were dead and needed cut back.)

Birch catkins.

Pop with a tomato seedling.

What would a post from Katydid be without birds?  She caught a purple finch at her feeder yesterday.

She calls this particular goldfinch Pattern, because he never completely golds up. He was here last year, too.

The finches love her feeder.

The Small Things: Foam swords

These photos are all fairly blurry, as I took them in low light with a low shutter speed.  But I think the blurriness captures some of the chaos inherent in the combination of boys and foam swords.

 

The Small Things: Quilt on the line

The Small Things: A Day Out

On our way to the doctor, looking toward Massachusetts.

A bit hazy for a spring day.

Waiting on Daddy to pick us up from the doctor.

Star magnolia blossoms about to open... down in the valley, their spring is about a week ahead of ours.

Coming back home.

We're back!

The Small Things: Moon shot

The Small Things: Mushrooms

We have mushrooms!

I picked these for dinner.  I made mushroom pizza, and the kids even ate it. And Gareth and Katydid said that the mushrooms were "okay".  And thus, the world will probably end tomorrow, so you should mark it on your calendars.

 

The Small Things: Bees

The honeybee population in the US (and around the world) is declining.  Bees are such a very small thing, and yet without them flowers would have little reason to bloom, and many plants, including plants we depend on for food, would not bear fruit.  This year we're planning to build a bee box, and we always like to plant what makes bees (and other pollinators) happy.

Until late afternoon, today was sunny and warmish, with temperatures in the low 60's.  (Practically June!) The bees seemed just as happy about it as we were.

Having time to contemplate bees on a spring afternoon - priceless.