Lilacs are blooming!

The sand cherries are done, but the pear trees are at the height of bloom.  The apples are about to start, and the lilacs opened this morning, which made everything smell wonderful - I had to walk all around sniffing things until I figured out that's what it was.  We've eaten a handful of asparagus and a dish of rhubarb cobbler, with much more to come.  Almost finished off the red radishes, but several rows of white icicle await.  The maters on the outdoor straw bales appear to have survived the little cold snap and rain this week.  And I chainsawed a respectable amount of black walnut left by the loggers and most of that stacked behind the house.  Also chainsawed half of the rails making up the old paddock - I still need to remove those and figure out what to do with the wire preventing me from taking down the rest of the rails.  I am feeling I managed to accomplish a reasonable amount of work outdoors before the rain showed up.  While it rained, I sewed - working on some quilty UFOs that have been hanging about for far too long.  I have 8 tops that need to go to the long-armer, and 8 more that are small enough for me to quilt on my own sewing machine.  Then I have about a dozen more UFOs to finish (yes, that's terrible).  After that, I'll start sewing for an Etsy shop to make a little cash. That is the plan, anyway.  If the weather and life cooperate.

Blooming

Went for a walk down to the river to clear my head and spooked 5 turkey and 6+ rabbits.  Also some cranes.  The frogs were VERY LOUD.  The spring beauty is blooming, along with the bloodroot, dandelions, dead nettle, one small clump of swamp buttercup, and some little purple flower whose name I don't know which the honeybees were ALL OVER.  It was the most relaxing, pleasant half hour I've had in awhile.  Probably because I was ALONE, except for all the blooming plants and wildlife.  Just me on a boulder, observing the world and trying not to think.

Last blast of winter?

I sure hope so.  We got 3-4 inches of snow last night. which made driving home from church real interesting.  I got home late and went down to the coop to put the ducks in and discovered the raccoon that escaped me on Thursday night had apparently come back and taken one of the ducks.  So now I have one lonely duck left.  In the future, we will only raise ducks for meat, no matter how much the kids beg to keep some for eggs (which really means pets, because they don't even like duck eggs).  Too many varmints around here for ducks when we don't have a pond they can use to escape.

In garden news, I moved a bunch of volunteer dill in the hoop house and weeded half of one side, in a t-shirt.  Then I went outside to discover the beginning of the snow.  The bales outdoors are much slower to condition than the ones in the hoop house due to the cold.  I've added a few days to the planting schedule to account for this.  I hope it isn't overly optimistic to hope I can get them all planted by next weekend.

So much for Spring

Yes, there is now an inch of snow on the ground.  I stayed inside and cleaned house instead of doing the gardening work I had planned.  And to cheer everyone up, I made crab salad for supper.  I had to brave the wind to go out to the garden and knock the snow off the chives, because the recipe called for scallions but I was out of them.  The chives worked just fine.  And it amused me to be harvesting in the snow.  To cheer myself up after that, I made cookies.  And fed the fire to keep us warm.

Little bit of gardening done today. Very little.

Black carrots (east end) and Osmin basil (west end) went in bale 4 (direct seeded) in the hoop house today.  Tomatoes (18 Matt's Wild Cherry/18 Hillbilly) and orange peppers (16) started indoors.  Mtn mint and Roman chamomile are up (indoors).  Supposed to snow tomorrow and Sunday, because this is Michigan in April.  Will wait to feed the bees till later in the week when it warms up again.  I think I can still check the deaders that were being robbed to see if they are  empty yet.  Sigh.  I so wanted to get outdoor garden chores done tomorrow.  I guess I'll just clean house.