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| Bloodroot emerging |
It's the time of Awakening and we can see it all around us. Trees are leafing out, others are blooming.
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| Rhubarb growing well |
The rhubarb is up in the garden.
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| Red currant blossoms |
The currants are in bud and bloom. Garlic and shallots are up and strawberries are perking up from their winter rest.
Our shiitake logs are beginning to fruit (it's called buttoning at this stage). We're looking forward to fresh mushrooms again.
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| Tiny shiitake buds |
We've been out in the garden a bit. The weather has been very rainy and cool. I have taken the winter mulch off of the garlic, shallots and strawberries. The raspberries have had the winter deadened tips clipped off.
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| Bob cleans out sprouted straw |
We've cleaned the planting beds of weeds which escaped us last autumn.
Bob undertook the task of digging up and moving our large shrub rose.
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| Rose bush in its new spot |
Once we had removed the back deck, this bush was in a bad spot (at the foot of our new porch steps). Now it is more properly located.
The cool weather plant starts are being hardened off and are soon to be planted.
Inside of the house, we each have had our own projects.
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| Acrobatic freezer washing |
I have consolidated the contents of the two chest freezers into one. Both freezes have now been defrosted and washed, ready for another season.
I also have cleaned the pantry and all of the kitchen cupboards and drawers. It's still too cool to wash all of the windows, but I hope to get to this before long.
Bob has of course, been working on the bathroom remodel.
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| New closet space |
All of the Masonite is off of the walls now. The new, smaller closet is framed out and drywalled.
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| Vanity on its way out |
The old vanity is on the junk pile! The next step is to update the wiring. There's a little bit more drywall to install and a ton of taping and mudding to do. The toilet will have to come out before that can be done. He's been putting that off because he is dreading the trips to the downstairs bathroom in the wee small hours. It's tough getting to be old. (I remember a Calvin and Hobbs cartoon where Calvin, afraid to travel to the bathroom, just peed out of his bedroom window (causing his parents to wonder why the rose bushes on that side of the house were dying). Perhaps Bob will resort to this?!).
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| Wind damage to a large pine |
We had three diversions this month.
The first was on the afternoon of the total solar eclipse. It was very overcast here, so we didn't see very much. We viewed this from our meadow and did experience it getting very dark and then becoming lighter again. It was very eerie! This was our first opportunity to look over our property since last autumn. We found seven large Eastern White Pine trees that had been uprooted by the winter's high winds.
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| A pine, cherry and maple all down together |
A few cherries were downed and some smaller maples snapped off by the winds or broken down by other falling trees. Most of these will be left to lie as they fell, but one is blocking our main path. It will have to be dealt with carefully because its trunk is covered with poison ivy vines.
Our next outing was at Buttermilk Falls State Park. It was a lovely day and the Gorge Trail had just been reopened for the season.
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| Hepatica blooming |
We walked both the North Rim and Gorge trails. There were many hepatica in bloom and the falls were lovely, as always.
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| Just one of the cascades in the Falls |
Our third adventure was a very muddy walk to Teeter Pond in the Finger Lakes National Forest, for Bob's birthday. There were only a few birds around: some Canada Geese and a Kingfisher. The most exciting thing was an American Woodcock that walked right next to us, about a foot off of the trail we were on. It's the first one we've ever seen. Sorry, but we focused on the moment and didn't take a photograph. Instead, here's a picture that Bob took of a very photogenic frog.
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| Phil the photogenic frog |
We plan to get out again this coming Friday to walk the Rim Trail at Watkins Glen State Park. A fine day is forecast, so we should have an enjoyable time.
That's about all of the news from here.
We'll continue to work on the bathroom and in the garden. By the time the next update comes out, the cool weather plants will be in the ground and the warm weather plants will be in the process of hardening off. Hopefully the bathroom will be showing real progress, too.
We hope all of you can get out and enjoy some of the gorgeous spring weather and all of the loveliness that it brings.
Till next time,
Bob and Kathleen
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| Colt's foot is blooming now |
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| Can you spot the Bumble bee? |
