Soaring into Spring!

What a glorious four day weekend! I couldn't ask for nicer weather, absolutely stunning. Last weekend I noticed that the swallows had started to return to the community garden. This weekend it seemed like there were even more of the lovely birds swooping around and claiming their homes. There are lots of homes at the garden for them. Some look not to be in the greatest shape but there are a lot of new ones there this year for them to choose from. Maybe next year I will get that done and put one up.

The down side of all this or upside if you are like me is that there is lots of work to be done outside this time of year. Most of the work this weekend was done in our back yard. My little allotment plot is pretty much all ready to go. My hubbie is still promising to build me a little side fence and get my tomato greenhouse going but it can wait until May-June. We did go out for a few minutes on the weekend and I planted some Swiss Chard. I should have planted some carrots too, not sure what I was thinking there. Nothing much is happening yet. No signs of my potatoes or peas. The garlic isn't quite as great as I had hoped and it looks like there are a few spaces but time will tell.

The rhubarb is looking much better than last year and there might be a pie in it for sure. The second year I know you can't harvest too much so next year will be the year of lots of rhubarb pies.

Yum!

Here is a picture of the pie I made a couple of years ago for my Dad for Father's Day. He loves rhubarb pie.

Lastly on the note of delicious things. I have finally, finally found a great and simple recipe for sauteed kale. Again, I found the article on Pintrest and here is the link. I adjusted it slightly by adding sauteed onion.

I cleaned the kale and took out the stem and then gave it a rough chop. I diced some fresh garlic and sliced a medium sized onion. I then sauteed the onion and garlic in olive oil on medium. I find the garlic doesn't have such a tendency to burn if it is with the onion. After the onion has softened you add the stock and the kale and cover for about five minutes and let steam. You then take the lid off and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Add salt and pepper and I added balsamic vinegar instead of red wine vinegar. The onions added a sweetness that I really liked. Definitely be making this one again. The other recipe that they mention is a kale pesto which would be a brilliant way to use up the kale in the summer and wouldn't that be nice to be pulling out nice pesto from the freezer in the winter to add to your sauces. For sure I will be trying that one.

And then there were two!

An illustration I did for a childrens coloring sheet

Beautiful day today and there are now two hummingbirds fighting at the feeder. They were so fast I couldn't quite see but I think one might be a little boy.

Can hardly wait to see what the weekend brings!

Sunday adventures

The weekends sure go fast, especially when the weather is nice.

My wishes came true and a little hummingbird was at my feeder. Just one and a little girl but I'm not complaining. My feeder was ready for her and it was funny, on Saturday morning I was stirring up a fresh batch and my hubby said what are you doing? I said making hummingbird water and on that note he looked outside and there she was.

Didn't get a chance to get to the garden Saturday but Sunday I drove out and took a couple more bags of compost and planted some kale, radishes, spinach and lettuce. The garden looked good and not waterlogged at all. No sign of the peas or potatoes yet which is fine. My rhubarb is starting to come up and it looks a bit scraggly but it always does at first.

Afterwards, I went for a bit of a walk to look and see if there was anything interesting happening. Lots of birds having a great time, the swallows are back and I did see a coyote run by so spring is definitely here and I hope to stay. Did a little work in the back yard and I have decided to purchase a raised bed kit from Home Depot and the best thing is they deliver. It will be great for the back garden experiment.

Mine! 

The other bit of news is that I looked in my little outdoor milk jug experiments and saw green! Yes, the foxgloves and delphiniums are both sprouting. I might have overdone it as they are also starting to sprout in my seed starters. Oops! Oh well, I can take some to the community garden as well and I do have a lot of dead space in the back yard where I can put them. No sign of the bee balm or columbine yet but fingers crossed!

Will be starting my tomatoes, basil and butternut squash in a couple days.

Happy Spring!

Three and a half hours to go!!!

  

 I saw this on Pintrest and had to share

Monsoon!

It feels like it has been raining 40 days and 40 nights. We have had A LOT of rain. I kind of forgot about my little milk jug project outside and found them swimming in water. I don't hold much hope for anything there. You never know though. I will just leave them for a while longer and see if anything grows. Everything in the back yard is looking so brown except for the splashes of crocus here and there which is always encouraging. It is fun to see things pop up. I have no idea what has been planted so it is a surprise. In my mind I know how I would like it to look and I hope I can get a lot done this year.

My little seedlings are doing really well under the lights and my parsley and cilantro are also beginning to sprout. I was going to plant a flat of basil but the package said to wait until April, urg, I'm so impatient. I love, love, love basil. Probably my favorite herb. I want to grow a lot of it for pesto. I've been rationing what I made last year and I'm down to one little cube. Last year was pretty good but it could have been better. I bought two packets for this year and hopefully it will do well.

My potatoes in the grow bags look pretty soggy. It hailed a bit yesterday with some big wet flakes of snow later but today it is a brilliant day. Blue sky but still pretty cool. The little Douglas squirrel has been getting me to feed him some peanuts today but it is pretty much a lost cause there. The blue jays watch where he hides them and then go and dig them up. Poor little pea brain but he is cute.

The back yard is so soggy I feel very unmotivated. As a matter of fact I don't feel like doing much of anything. The rest of the day might be just relaxing, unless of course I can convince my hubby to go for a walk.

You never know til you try!

Very very sore and tired but happy with what I accomplished yesterday in the garden.

It was a gorgeous day so after making a list of what to take I headed out to my allotment garden. I took a bag of sea soil for my flower bed and two bags of organic compost for the beds where I was planting potatoes and peas. There were other eager gardeners there mostly getting their beds ready. I think I am the only one who has done any planting so perhaps I'm early and I probably am but it nothing comes up I will just reseed. You never know till you try.

While I was there I decided to get a wheelbarrow full of manure for some of my beds that needed topping up while there was still a supply of last years stuff. Since it has been sitting around all winter it isn't as potent as the new manure that will replace it. After filling it up it was so hard to push and I thought boy I'm more out of shape than I thought. That is when I realized that the tire on the wheelbarrow was flat. Yes, I should have checked it but it looked okay when I got it but with the weight of the manure it was flat as a pancake. I had to get a new one from the other end of the garden and fill that one up. Needless to say I was pretty pooped (ha ha) at this point.

Anyway, I got everything I wanted to done and went home to the lovely smells of my pork roast in the crockpot. It was still early so I went to the backyard and did a bit more clean up. Still lots to do there!

Dinner was awesome. I had started a very easy bread (no knead) in the morning that you cook in a dutch oven recipe here and of course the pork roast recipe here which was more like pulled pork. With the pork recipe I substituted vegetable broth for the water and thickened it all at the end with cornstarch. Lovely and so nice when you have been outside working all day.

My new Zinnia babies

More Home Cooking

I can hardly wait to start my herb garden. I did plant some cilantro and parsley in my seed trays this weekend as I guess they take awhile to germinate. All the recipes that I have been wanting to try use bits and pieces of herbs and it kills me to have to buy it. Everything is in those plastic packets and who knows how old everything is.
 
Last weekend I tried a couple of new recipes, both from the new Barefoot Contessa cookbook Foolproof. One sounded so strange I thought it might be good using sausages and grapes. I halved the recipe and used only one kind of sausage but it was really good and super easy. I will definitely make this one again.

 The other was a Penne pasta dish, pretty simple as well with two cans of good Italian tomatoes, onions, cream, hot pepper flakes, parmesan cheese and another rather different ingredient, a cup of vodka. It was good and easy but I kind of thought it was a waste of vodka. Probably won't make it again. I might however do an adaptation on the sauce and use red wine instead.

 Hopefully I will be able to put in my peas and potatoes in the allotment garden this weekend so I'm going to try a slow cooker roast pork in the crock pot. I saw the recipe on Pintrest and it sounds easy and lets face it really nice to come home to after a day in the garden.

Beautiful Sunday!

It has been a very productive weekend! Rainy all day Saturday but got lots of inside stuff done. We did manage to get to the garden centre and I bought three bags of Sea Soil.

Today was gorgeous especially after the weeks torrential rains. The backyard needed some major work. My hubby proceeded to get rid of the kiwi tree that wasn't doing much of anything and I cleaned up the beds of leaves. They are now bagged and ready to go either to the allotment compost or to be dug into the bed here. Haven't quite decided yet. I set up the potato bags and planted four potatoes in each using some sea soil and compost. Should be interesting....

The jays were in fine form bugging us for peanuts. There had to be 20 of them out there. The little native squirrel was very brave so I think the previous owners must have been feeding him. He got his share of nuts and after he ate his fill he kept coming up and getting more to hide. Lucky I bought nuts yesterday too!

I feel good about what we managed to accomplish although it doesn't really look all that different. We were out there for three hours and I can sure feel it! It is still pretty brown out there except for these nice surprises.

That's the thing, when you move into a new place it is always a good idea not to do too much digging around and to wait and see if any bulbs come up.  There are a few crocus, yippee! Maybe if I keep feeding the squirrel nuts he will leave them alone. Still have a lot to do out there.

Here's hoping that next weekend will at least have one nice day. I would love to get out to the allotment and plant my peas and potatoes. If that happens it will be two months sooner than I was able to do it last year so fingers crossed.

Well, off now to plant a flat of seeds.... Happy Sunday!