Real Spring Has Arrived

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day and spent some time with family.  It is amazing how just a couple of weeks can make such a difference weather wise!  We have had such nice days and occasional rain showers and warm days have made our Spring a reality.  All the grass is green, green, green and the leaves are fully out on the big maples.  Flowering shrubs and bushes are lovely and the tulips and daffodils are beginning to finish their blooming time.  Lilacs are just popping out too.  Some have already planted their gardens.  We wait until just before Memorial Day and hope for no more frosts.  The soil is warmer now and the seeds will germinate pretty quickly.  Den has the garden all tilled and ready.

                                                        From the patio as the sun is setting.

Angel and I had a great time picking out plants at the greenhouse last week.  As the new potting shed is finished now, I was happy to do my potting there and all the pots, trowels and shovels were in one place with the new bag of potting soil.  I mix that in with my good dirt and some compost I have made. The plants seem to like it and thrive.   I got some nice hanging flower plants from my hubby, daughter and daughter-in-law for Mother's Day, they are all so thoughtful!

I am ready now to share a picture of that great new potting shed as it is all painted and ready to show off!  And here it is......

It is very airy and light inside too.  The back window overlooks the river, and was

a freebee that someone had discarded, can't imagine why as it is brand new and even has

the mullions in between the glass!  Pretty fancy for a potting shed I'd say, and looks like 

a picture window in this little building.

 The picture at the top of my blog was taken from that window. 

Den made me shelves and a workbench inside and places to hang things.

I have been out foraging for edible greens etc.  Had a meal of fiddle head ferns, which are not my favorite but plentiful so I have a meal of those once each spring.  Some people just love them.  Then I picked dandelion greens several times as they are really good.  But the newest I have tried is the garlic mustard that is actually a non native plant that is becoming very invasive here.  The leaves are lush and tender and the top most stalks are good too.  Gathering some for dinner before they get their little white blossoms insures a very mild and not bitter at all green to cook. If they have small beginning blooms it is still fine. I just pick them off the top and discard them.  Then they are cooked like any green and are as mild as spinach!  Can do anything with them that you would with spinach. Some make pesto with the leaves.  Along about August,  it is good to get a bucket and go in search of the seed pods that have formed and pick the pods containing these little black seeds.  It is these tiny seeds, so numerous, that keep this invasive plant producing and taking over.  By being so prolific they don't allow the native ground cover and other ground plants to grow and thrive.  Folks around here get together and have garlic mustard  pulling outings.  The plant pulls up pretty easily and huge plastic bags are used to gather them into.  Then they are tied up so no light nor air can get to them.  I guess some burn them.  Getting them before they go to seed is the way to eliminate them.

When they do go to seed, the pods can be picked and the seeds winnowed out, ground, and used to make a delicious spicy mustard!  I have a recipe and I want to try it this August.   Also can make a Garlic Mustard Seed Salad Dressing which I also want to try.

Also last week, we visited the greenhouse where our grandson is the production manager, Gourmet Greens.  We got a tour of how they raise pea greens, radish and sunflower greens and wheat grass.  These are then harvested and sold to the local co-op, a local distributer of organic veggies and some restaurants.  A very interesting organic operation!  I liked my samples and I think I liked the radish greens the best and they were great in a chicken sandwich!  Thanks Pat for the tour.

Last night was the last in a series of monthly Baked Ham Suppers that we serve at church.  It is always a fun time to work with friends on the suppers.  We serve a family style dinner to  anywhere from 65 to 105 people and a lot of them are regulars.  It is always nice to see them as sometimes it is the only place we do get to see them.  

On Friday morning we attended the monthly breakfast for the class of '58.  A great turnout of about 24 classmates and some spouses as well.  We all look forward to these great times to visit and catch up with each others happenings.

Soon it will be time to get the Kayaks out and go for a paddle!  Looking forward to that for sure.  So much to do ...  so little time!!  Farmer's markets will be starting soon too.  A great way to get home grown veggies, eggs, home baked and canned goodies and crafts.  AND great news for those who haven't heard ... Vermont is the very first state to now require labeling of food as to whether it has  ingredients that have been Genetically Modified!  Everyone has a right to know how the food they are purchasing has been grown.  Big chemical companies aren't happy with us for sure.

Enjoy your Spring ....  Take time to enjoy the friendly sun.

"Beautiful faces are they that wear

The light of a pleasant spirit there.

Beautiful hands are they that do

Deeds that are noble, good and true.

Beautiful feet are they that go

Swiftly to lighten another's woe."

                  From McGuffy's Second Reader

  

I Think it is Spring !

Spring is truly here!  I wake to hear the robins singing and after supper, the peepers can be heard down by the brook.  But still that nippy wind persists! And it has been really blowing lately!  The sheets on the line nearly blew away today!

 We have raked out all the flower beds and the daffodils are blooming.  The forsythia on the north side still isn't blooming.  Guess it is still recovering from the severe cold of winter.  The 'Project', the recycled Potting/Garden shed is coming along nicely. It now has shutters at the windows!  Today I picked out some paint for them to brighten up the little house.  Soon as we get the outside looking nice I will get inside and see about how to set up a place to pot my plants etc.
Yesterday Angel and I went to meet the newest little bundle of joy, our very first gr. gr. grandson, Jordan.  What a little cuddle baby he is!

I have been experimenting as I learn to make a more gluten free bread that really looks like a nice loaf of bread and tastes as good as the bread I am used to making and eating.  We are told these days that so much wheat with all its gluten isn't that good for us.  So, today's experiment was a success!  A seven grain bread with much less wheat and many other grains etc.  Buckwheat, corn, brown rice, sorghum flour, almond flour and oat bran.  It was delicious!  So guess I am glad I jotted down what I added to that dough so I can do it again next time. 

"If thou taste a crust of bread, thou taste all the stars 

                                       and all the heavens."             Robert Browning

And now this spring day has come to an end and it is time to toddle off to bed.  Sleep well all!