4.9.14

Big day! First asparagus peeking up in the vegetable garden. The truest harbinger of spring.

4.5.14

Already the buds are falling to make way for green leaves.

4.4.14

Blooming fothergilla: you're like a romanesco cauliflower, only tinier and with a name that sounds more like an undersea monster. 

4.3.14

Amsonia pretends to be asparagus when it starts poking out from the ground.

4.3.14

Backyard redbud, ready to burst open.

3.30.14

There used to be a blueberry bush here. It never grew very big. Last weekend it moved next door to Trine's front yard.

Now there is pineapple sage (and yes, it actually smells like a damn pineapple), purchased from Rob at the market last weekend. Soon to come: summertime lemon balm and pineapple sage sun tea. Under the mulch there are seeds for California poppy (orange, lanky) and cockscomb celosia (rainbow, brain-shaped). Hoping the weekend's rain and the coming week's sun helps them feel at home enough to grow.

Today Jamie and Sara and Kate came over for brunch. We had orange juice and blueberry muffins and kale salad and caramel bread pudding and a good old time. They helped me ease into trying out the new duvet I bought for my bed: linen, blue with beachy white stripes. This afternoon I laid on the new sheets with the window open in the breeze, reading. 

3.28.14

My neighbor stopped by yesterday to tell me that my beautiful plum tree has a fungus called 'smut' that I need to remove. Awkward.

3.21.14

Dinner at Toast with Kate. They know her there. "Another kale sandwich?" I had cheese and pickled red onion and shitake and oyster mushrooms on mine. And a coca cola.

Also, had an adventure I've always wanted to try in Durham, taking the walk from Five Points to Fullsteam. How far is it, really? The answer: not so far, especially on a sunny day when everyone is outside drinking a beer and there's top-notch people-watching all around. 

3.17.14

Spicy red lentil soup for a rainy-sleety-haily Saint Patrick's Day.

3.12.14

I moved into my house in December 2012. Last spring, I studied the garden map and watched things grow, guessing what was what as they popped out of the dry ground. This year, I know what I'm looking for.

Pink muhly grass.

Green and gold.

Coreopsis.

Methley plum.

3.1.14

Emerging.

2.24.14

Last night, snow cream with surprise sprinkles: you cheered me up.

Today, self-care walk and signs of new growth in the woods.

2.23.14

Growing.

Now, off to weed the vegetable beds.

2.22.14

There it is.

2.21.14

Will the first of you have opened by the time I get home from work?

2.20.14

A wren is chirping outside the open back door.

The snow is melted, the daffodils are getting ready to burst, and the blueberries have buds.

Last night we fried bacon (always the right things to do), chopped it up and put it back in the pan with kale and leftover potatoes and eggs. I love how frit

2.8.14

 New self-care plan: more cooking at home.

Yesterday I roasted a butternut squash and sprinkled it with parmesan cheese, then mixed some quinoa with sliced carrots, watermelon radish, chickpeas,  shitake mushroom, lemon juice and olive oil, and ate on the front porch in the afternoon sun.

2.3.14

While cutting down dead, wintered-out plants, I uncovered these daffodils on the west side of the house, already forming flowers.

2.2.14

Sunday morning. Taking a walk with Jamie, then clearing out the winter debris from the yard. Then maybe starting vegetable seeds for the spring? But first, as always, coffee.

1.28.14

Another snow day.

 

I walked in the woods before the storm.