Beautiful!

Saturday was the start of a beautiful 10 day forecast. It is incredible out! I have the back door open and I didnt have to wear ear muffs or gloves or even leggings that covered my entire legs when running this morning! There is definitely a spring in my step. Is this the beginning of spring???

Happy Valentines Day.

Parsnip and carrot salad

Not much going on here at the ranch. Danny left me for the West Coast, so Im on my own again. The man down the street brought me some fresh eggs, so that was very nice of him. Need to make him some bread now.

When Danny is away, I like to make food every few days and just be able to eat off of it for a while, so that I don't have to cook every night. So Sunday I made breakfast muffins for my 10am snacks, salmon and veggie pasta for 3 night's worth of dinners and parsnip and carrot salad to snack on during the day. Its such a delicious, yet simple salad, I just had to share! Its also a whiz with a food processor and almost better the next day too!

Parsnip and Carrot Salad

Shred one large parsnip and two carrots.

Mix together with the following;

Raisins

Parsley

Black pepper

Lemon juice

Orange juice

Apple cider vinegar

My garden is looking beautiful. My clematis have never had so many flowers and every year I seem to have a bigger and more bountiful crop of irises. I love the fact that I have all different kinds too, so that the blooming period is prolonged. I have a full vase of purple irises in my living room and you cant even tell Ive cut any! I also seem to have alliums in bloom, which were a new additive this year. Though the coreopsis has not bloomed this year, so Im wondering if it is a biennial and the ones for next year just arent ready yet.

Busy busy bumble bee!

I feel like I haven’t stopped since last week, so Im pretty tired. Ended up staying at work til almost 5pm Friday, which sucked and I was pretty wired and feeling crappy too. But I had a little lie down at home, though I didnt sleep, we ate a quick dinner and went to the violin quartet at the Ford Center. It was ok. Not really what I had expected. There were two ‘bands’ one classical (which we like) and one ‘modern’, playing things like Jimmy Hendrix and Robbie Coltrane (which we don’t like so much). Unfortunately the latter had a much larger role in how the evening was divided up, so that sort of sucked, and of course it was a late night, with us not getting home til after 1030.

Saturday morning started with the farmers market at 715am. Im so excited its open again! They didnt have much, but its just the act of meeting girlfriends and going to the farmers market to wander around with no specific purpose. I bought some Christmas tree ferns (bartered on the price!), some spinach, broccoli and greenhouse tomatoes. Meg and I then walked from there to town and ended up in the coffee shop where we met Tasha and Megan for a cup of tea. It was so nice! When I got home, Danny had already placed all of the bags of mulch where they needed spreading and we had the first palette of mulch spread by lunchtime. We then bought it loose, which is way more work, but cheaper. My back was killing me at the end of the day and we didnt even get it finished, but the back yard looks really really nice. In the evening we rode to Sonic and I ate a heck of a lot of food, ending with a root beer float! Although it all made me rather sick Sunday morning, guess Im just not used to fast food.

Sunday was nice, though still busy. I got up late for me, around 8am! Walked the dogs then got back into bed! I showered up and got all fancified and we went to the bakery for breakfast, where Danny beat me at cribbage! We did a belly photoshoot at Rowan oak and I conned Danny into grocery shopping with me. When we got home we did a few odd jobs round the house then Danny went to softball practice and I baked bread and cooked food. We had some friends over Sunday night to sit outside in the almost chilly spring evening air, it was so nice! I made rosemary focaccia bread and served with sliced mozzarella drizzled with pesto, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with seasoning, and a huge bowl of strawberries for appetizers. Then we grilled some steaks and had salad and wild rice. Yummy! They ended up playing Beatles rock band and sounded like they had a blast. Went to bed too late again and am exhausted today.

"Ribbit"

The story behind these little guys is rather cute... I have never planted crocuses anywhere in my garden. Don't get me wrong, I think they are adorable, but I was under the impression that it didn't get cold enough in Mississippi to grow such wintery bulbs. So who knows how they got there! My guess is by bird dropped seed. They are in a flower bed which we created, so are not like our pink ladies which must have been put in by our predecessors; the soil in which these crocuses live is 2 feet higher than it used to be. For several years I have noticed little shoots in their location and knew that I had not put anything there, but I am of the opinion that if it isn't a nasty weed or harmful to anyone, it can stay until we work out what it is; we have acquired lots of awesome plants this way! Well this year, we worked out what it was! Unfortunately, the night after I took this picture there was a deluge of a rain storm and they got plastered into the surrounding mulch, but I was able to enjoy them for a few days at least!

Spring garden

And begins the onslaught of proud garden reflection. Better late than never. However, please realise my pictures do not do this beautiful garden justice.

The first thing to bloom this year was my Hellebore, or Lenton Rose. So beautiful! Its unfortunately up in a spot where I have to take a little walk to see it, but its always so worth it. This picture was taken over a month ago probably. By now the hellebore is around 2 or so feet tall and wide, and is branching out like a beautiful little flowering tree! I ordered some more, it inspired me so much, though unfortunately it takes several years to bloom.

Does this mean its Spring?

Does it mean its officially Spring if my first daffodil has bloomed?

I would take a picture of the cute little fellow (I think it might be stunted by the cold weather) but I have temporarily misplaced my mini-camera and the photographer is in Sacramento. My Hellebore (Lenton Rose) is also looking most beautiful. It makes me sad that is off in one corner of the garden, so I think I shall have to get some more. hmmmm. Perhaps a trip to the garden center friday?

I spent a busy Sunday raking leaves and mulching flower beds, only to go inside and sweep, vacuum and do laundry. Still managed to sit down with my knitting by 4pm and eat the most incredible dinner ever. I just love Spaghetti squash! Its the easiest dinner ever!


Baked spaghetti squash

(2-3 servings)

Spaghetti squash
Lemon juice
Butter
Seasoning

Marinara sauce
Pesto
Chopped olives
Frozen spinach

Cut squash in half length ways, scrape out seeds and innards. Set on baking dish cut side up. Pour in some lemon juice, water (so liquid is about a centimeter deep in center of squash), a knob of butter and season heavily (ie. salt, pepper, rosemary, parsley etc). Bake at about 400F for approximately 1 hour. Stab with knife to see if its cooked (soft).

Leave squash to cool briefly. While squash is cooling, in a small bowl place sufficient marinara and frozen spinach for two. Microwave 4 minutes. Mix marinara, spinach, pesto and olives together.

Shred squash flesh from the outside in. Mix with sauce and enjoy the healthiest dinner you could create with almost no effort!

Plunged into an awful Spring...

I think Spring is the best time of year. Its suddenly warm again. The sun shines so brightly in the open blue sky. Lots of azaleas and flowering trees are in bloom and there are hundreds of bulbs bursting into colour all around us. At least thats how Spring is in Oxford, MS. We are almost done with our Spring, yes Id say we were in early Summer. My tomato plants all have flowers on them, my broccoli has 2 inch diameter heads and the corn and beans have sprouted and are growing quickly each day. Then I fly across the country to Portland, OR and what a dreary place it is, even in Spring; supposed to be the best time of year. How is that even possible? I ask you. Its still cold here, I only packed my scarf and beanie as after thoughts because I know how I get so cold. I certainly didnt have enough clothing on today, with my under-vest, merino wool long-sleeve tee-shirt, tee-shirt, sweat-shirt and rain jacket. It rained pretty much all day, and it was reasonably cold. Miserable is a good word to describe it! Ugh, no matter Portland inhabitants are the most depressed people in the country! I saw hardly any bulbs around here, and before you say maybe they were finished already, I didnt even see 'old' daffodil heads and there were but a very few tulips. Hardly anyone has azaleas or flowering trees, and some of those that did must have pruned them in the fall as they cut off most of the new years buds. Its difficult to go from a place where people put so much effort into their surrounding landscape to a place where people dont really seem to care all that much.

Oh, how I miss my garden! When Im on fieldtrips, Im usually ok for at least the first week. When Danny is on the trip with me (as he is this time) I usually dont get home sick until very close to the end. But I must very sadly confess, that I am already homesick. Infact last night, I thought I heard my dog crying so I spread my arm out to pet him as I usually do, when I realised that he in fact was not there and my arm was laying across Danny's chest.

I whine and whine, but infact it wasnt that bad a day! It did rain all day but for some reason it didnt seem that bad, and the site was pretty easy. What was amusing about today, was that because it rained the entire day with no respite, the creek rose rather rapidly around the 4pm mark. I walked off to use the bathroom and when I got back, Brian was yelling at me to hurry up and get down in the creek as my $10 000 instruments were about to float away! eeeek! So someone had to hold them in place while I took a final reading, then they had to hold it while I packed it up, otherwise it would float away! Everything we had out with us today is soaking wet, and guess what! Its going to rain pretty much the rest of the week! Maybe not friday but hey, at least the weekend is looking clear.

I tried to get you a picture of me working, but it seems that my photographer husband is not so good with a point and shoot!

Tulip Mania!

So... more garden pictures!

This is what I wake up to every morning! I cunningly planted these bulbs under my bedroom window and they are so bright and beautiful that I dont even need to put my glasses on to see them in the mornings!

I love tulips so much! It makes me a little sad that they are mostly annuals here in Mississippi but its also kinda good because I get to change out the colours every year!

        

Spring Garden

I was awfully sad this spring because we were in Portland, OR for six weeks across prime daffodil time... my favourite time of the year in my (often bland) woodland garden.  However Danny had lied to me when he had said that all of the daffodils that I so diligently moved in October had already bloomed and passed... I found this out as he drove me home from the lab after my four day journey across the country to see the edge of my driveway lined with bright, sunny, beautiful daffs.  Then he walked me round back to see the best show my Camellia has ever produced! So I share my returning home photographs with you!