Birthday flowers
Last night's full moon was beautiful. Our weather has been a mixed bag this month. We've had very warm days, followed by cold and rain. We had snow over the weekend. I believe it was only the second time that Bob got out his snow thrower all season. Sun yesterday and today has melted nearly all of it.
During the nice weather we did some outside chores.
"Five, Six Pick Up Sticks"
I gathered all of the branches and twigs which had fallen in the yard during our windy weather. These will be used for stove kindling.
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| Bob prunes an apple tree |
Bob got out and pruned his apple trees. He took some of the cuttings to Cornell Wildlife Hospital for a sick beaver to enjoy.
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| Shiitake logs |
Then he set up his shiitake logs for the season ahead.
Now he's busy working on the bathroom remodel. We finally got a new toilet. This is the fourth try. The first had a molding defect. The second time they sent the wrong model. The third time the tank was broken. We had all of these delivered, but we had to take the returns back ourselves. We got tired of hefting them around. We decided to get a different brand and drove to Henrietta to pick it up ourselves. It appears to be fine. We're glad that nonsense is over. I was beginning to think we'd have to use a five-gallon bucket for the job!
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| Closet wall coming down |
Bob's got the tub area drywalled, taped and mudded. Now he's removing the walls around the closet. It takes quite a bit of muscle to get the framing out. He also has to deal with a couple of different ceiling levels in this area. It looks complicated to me.
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| Seed starting begins |
I've started many of my garden seeds: cabbage, kale, chard, tat soi, lettuce, spinach, celery, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and sweet potatoes. I'm still waiting for the peppers and sweet potatoes to sprout.
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| Three weeks later... |
Everything else is up and has been potted up into the small sized pots. After they've filled these out, they'll be potted up into a larger sized pot.
I finished my hardanger project in plenty of time for spring decorating.
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| Pansy runner all finished |
Lately I've been working on a cardigan for myself. There's just a little bit more time to enjoy leisure activities: reading, working puzzles and needlework. Our larder is emptying out. We still have a few potatoes, some frozen fruits and vegetables and lots of sweet potatoes.
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| Sweet potato fries |
Since we have so many sweet potatoes left we eat them nearly every day. This is one of our favorite ways to fix them.
I cut the potatoes into sticks and drizzle them with olive oil. I toss them to distribute the oil and then sprinkle on an herb mixture of salt, cayenne, black pepper, oregano, garlic powder and rosemary. These bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees, stirring halfway through baking time. Since the potatoes get sweeter with storage, ours are pretty sweet. Neither Bob nor I like really sweet vegetables, so we like to dress the fries with vinegar. That makes them very tasty.
Despite our cooler than normal temperatures right now, spring is at hand. By the end of next month we should be planting peas and setting out the cool weather seedlings.
Nature's stirring from its rest and the pace of our lives will pick up in response.
Enjoy this final bit of rest and look forward to a new season of growth and life.
Till next time,
Kathleen and Bob
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| A foggy morning at our house |
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| Foggy lane to our wooded property |
