Kate & I drove down to my CSA farm to pick up plants a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t put a single thing into the ground or a pot, as she’s done it all…
…with a little bit of help from her garden assistants. They were playing school — Queen Elizabeth’s Princess School (or something along those lines) — so declared their planting session with Kate as “Garden Class.” (Malina had a tiara on, too, when they began.) Katie shared a cute video of Ginny having “tea” during break, pinkie finger properly extended!
Now that the rain and cool weather have moved on (it’s warming up… ever so slowly), we’ve been spending a lot more time outside, which is so nice!
We had a great Memorial Weekend, except for Sunday — for some reason, that day flew by at lightning speed! At any rate, it was a good mix of feeling accomplished & feeling relaxed. I’m packing my suitcase tonight, as I’m starting my journey right after work tomorrow… already received notification from the driver who will pick me up at the airport in Lima (same one as last time).
It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year!! (click any pic to embiggen and/or to scroll)
NOTES:
This is all at my house, except for the LUPINE — that’s at Ali’s! She has some Virginia bluebells, too, and it’s exciting to see what’s happening over there — so many things to discover!
My forsythia is blooming (finally)!
Fiddleheads, hostas, bleeding hearts, snowdrops & ligularia are all emerging (and/or blooming, as the case may be). I bet there are trout lilies & mayapples in the ravine.
The barberry had been dormant & I didn’t even know we had one until I cut down a burning bush — because it was blocking my view down the sidewalk. My kids were little & a view down the sidewalk was important. Now the barberry is about as big as the burning bush was & it’s blocking my view of grandkids!! (I do prune it… a little… once in a while.)
It’s sidewalk chalk season! I’m not sure who’s responsible for my new blue chair. haha.
There’s a tiny bit of a leaf (I guess that’s what it is) stuck to one of our bedroom windows. It’s about as big as a fingernail. It’s on a second-story window that’s not easily accessible… so I’ve been waiting for it to wash away.
Except that it’s not washing away. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night… seems to make any difference. It’s been there for months! I’ve been avoiding it when taking photos of the yard from the bedroom, but now it’s become subject. It looked kind of cool on a recent frosty morning. And like something one might see under a microscope.
Friday was pretty busy what with getting Ann’s Airbnb ready and then taking a nap.
Per the official Memorial Day Weekend forecast, Saturday was predicted to be the only nice weather day, so I took the long way to the grocery store… I didn’t need to drive down to the CSA farm again but I did! Sunscreen on, top down!! It was wonderful. They’ve been increasing the number of other local/Wisconsin/small biz products they carry, so besides some produce (asparagus) & more basil plants, I bought some Red Sauce from Bushel & Peck (simple, pure Italian red gravy), some tortilla chips from Tortilleria Zepeda, and some shrubs from Siren Shrub (my favorite flavors are tart cherry & basil) (they have lots of good recipes on their site).
I used some of the blue corn tortillas from Tortilleria Zepeda that I’d picked up earlier to make some pretty amazing crispy fish tacos on Saturday night. We’d forgotten how good that recipe was! I’m usually not a fan of corn tortillas — at least the ones you buy at the store — because they’re so soft & fall apart the second you look at them, but the TZ tortillas held up beautifully, even with a juicy fruit salsa & sauce. So good. There were two tortillas left, along with a little bit of everything else, so we each had another fish taco as part of our grazing/leftover clean-up supper last night.
Lovva (lava) by Malina.Sky by Malina.Mermaid by Ginny.
I had the kids most of the day on Sunday and then Ali stayed for dinner after she was finished at work. I have to tell you, sometimes, even when I know that I’m going to have the kids for a while, I find myself unprepared. I forget that I have to feed them! I usually have a couple of boxes of mac & cheese in the pantry, but even kids don’t live by mac & cheese alone. I upped the game and bought cheese tortellini for lunch to go with that Italian gravy — which two out of four kids LOVED! (Some of them take after their mother. haha)
We’d originally planned a cookout for dinner, but it was raining pretty hard. I’d come across a recipe on IG for Quick Potato Pie the other day and had everything needed to make that! It’s basically a quiche but with a mashed potato “crust.” (The kids still opted for the planned-for hot dogs!) Malina & Davy helped me make Rhubarb Bars With Shortbread Crust, and that was dessert. (The littles opted for ice cream sandwiches.) I’m having a reprise of that meal for lunch today!
I even got Ginny & Malina to try some raw rhubarb dipped in sugar — and they liked it! Next time I make the rhubarb shortbread recipe, I’ll use a slightly larger pan with more crust on the bottom & just a bit less on top, and twice the amount of rhubarb! I have a lot of rhubarb to use.
What’s your favorite rhubarb recipe, or method for keeping/freezing for later use?
We have flowers indoors & out. There are LOTS of amaryllis leaves on quite a few plants, but only one flower stalk — our timing was off this year. The irises are gorgeous — those are some tiny wild blueflag irises. We’ve had so much rain (more this afternoon) but a few days of sunshine ahead and I predict a major growth spurt in the garden!
