Spring is springing

That Christmas song has it all wrong. Spring is the most wonderful time of the year!

Here at the stuga, we have a small stand of baby redbud trees. This is the first year they have really bloomed. They are going to be gorgeous in a few years.

From Gardening

I've never looked very closely at redbud blooms. I was playing around with the macro setting, trying to capture the bees, but this butterfly scared them off.

From Gardening

The ground here is covered with wild violets. They have a nice scent when in direct sun.

From Gardening

Another of our wild flowers, rose vervain (a type of verbena).

From Gardening

A not-so-wild strawberry bloom.

From Gardening

Asparagus. This year we are allowed to eat some of it!

From Gardening

And our favorite harbinger of spring, the dogwood!

From Gardening

Jealousy

There I sat, sipping a refreshing beverage at Spork's sister's house this past Sunday, when I happened to look out the window and see a hummingbird on the feeder. A hummingbird. In freakin' February. I, Ellie May, friend to all things furry or feathered, don't have any hummingbirds. But Spork's sister has hummingbirds. How can this be? It's not fair! I cry fowl.




P.S. Please excuse the poor picture quality. I only had Spork's phone to use as a camera.

Cruciferous transmogrification

Last fall, in a desperate attempt to produce Brussels sprouts in my garden, I put in 18 plants. They were a mix of some I had started from seed and a pack of plants purchased from a local garden center. Somehow, out of 18 plants, only 5 are still Brussels sprouts. The remaining plants have been transformed into broccoli. I've heard of fish that can change gender if there aren't enough of both sexes for reproductive purposes, but I've never heard of plants switching cultivar groups within a species.

With the miraculous conversion, the aphid attack which has stunted my Brussels sprouts plants, and the 9 other actual broccoli plants in the garden, the forecast is once again looking bleak on homegrown sprouts. But I sure do have a lotta broccoli...

When good bread goes bad...

Tell 'em it's 'focaccia'.

I got cocky and thought I could make a double batch of sourdough. That means mixing it by hand because my mixer bowl isn't large enough to handle 7+ cups of bread dough. I did something wrong (so very wrong) and ended up with a large, ever-expanding glob of really wet dough. I tried to form 2 loaves, but ended up with one mutant monster by the time it "rose". I use the quotes because while it expanded on the sides, it actually became shorter in height, much like the women in my family do as we age. Ah well, while it wouldn't win any awards for presentation, it did taste very good.