The Escape Artist

La di dah! All the plants are in, with three days of digging and dirty fingernails behind me. Lily of the Valley in the woodland border was the last. I was a good gardener and watered everything with a transplant mixture. Our soil is rocky and planting, except in the raised beds, is always labor intensive. Those glaciers just left one helluva lotta rocks. Just one mosquito bite.

Annie the cat escaped and is enjoying eating grass and lazing in the sun. Nothing beats a nap outside, I guess. Birds are not pleased and are scolding her.

So everything is ready for a rainy weekend. After all that work, it would be nice to sit on the deck and enjoy the newly planted flowers, but they will welcome the rain, too. Pictures of the garden soon.

The bad bunny struck again, only this time he ate the most common of wild flowers, except that it is the one I bought, the goldenrod, not the one growing wild. Grrrr! So far he has struck the tulips, the verbena, the crocus, and the creeping phlox. And the goldenrod. What is one to do about such a naughty critter?

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Eyes Bigger Than Stomach

This is the Apricot Tart with the Cornmeal Crust that I found at Epicurious last weeek--the recipe not the tart. Hie thee to the Apricot King for the best dried apricots and other stuff as well, like syrup and hot pepper jam and their delicious, thick syrup that enhances any pancake, waffle or slice of French toast. www.apricotking.com

We went to the nursery (Brigg's) yesterday to buy bedding plants, and some perennials, and pretty soon the trunk and the back seat of the car were full to capacity of well, stuff that had to be paid for and planted. I always get carried away, and my eyes are not bigger than my stomach (fat chance) but bigger than the beds and assortment of pots we have to accommodate all this greenery.

So everything with the exception of one plant that goes into the wildflower border and the new hostas and impatience (add 10 lilies of the valley) are in the ground. What a job! As in work.

A most unpleasant discovery today. The bad rabbit who eats almost everything had done a number of some of the flowers and he ate the blooms! The verbena was a mass of leaves and stems. Grrrrr! Tomorrow I sprinkle red pepper on those particularly yummy plants. I thinned out some of the dill and coriander which reseeded itself from years past. We had the best salad with fresh dill and I sprinkled coriander (cilantro) on the chili. Yes, chili.

We discovered that we never had chili all winter. Not one bowl. I concocted scads of soups, but forgot to make the New York Times chili recipe. It's so good and so easy. I substituted half a jalapeno for the cayenne, and used half the amount of chili powder, because mine from Penzeys is hot hot hot! I fried up some tortillas and grated a bit of cheddar and was it ever tasty.
www.penzeys.com

So tomorrow I finish planting and Saturday it rains and everyone is happy. Except maybe that rabbit.

The cake plate is an old one with silver on glass, very pretty and until last week, stuck in a box and forgotten.

Fresh fruit season is here, and the tarts will be coming in and out of the oven thick and fast.

Yum!

All Hail Spring!

Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where
The flowers is.

What delightful doggerol! We've had 3 warm days in a row after weeks of weather in the 40's. The forsythia burst into bloom, and so did the goldfinches, the male so wonderfully yellow after his drab winter. A pair is always hanging out at the thistle seed feeder. I noticed the chicadees have also paired up. We had a new sparrow yesterday, and of course I forgot to notice a couple features which would have helped identify the cheeky little critter. So cute.

Mother and father mallad are swimming together in the slough, which has some blooming trees therein, and the red has turned yellow soon to be green. Chipmunks up and about, but the squirrels must be nesting.

The house painters have come and gone, disrupting bird feeding and life in general. They only smashed one plant, an iris. The tulips will not bloom, due to having been saved from the rabbits too late, likewise the crocus. This fall I'm naturalizing some daffodils in the woods and saying to hell with the rest.

Spring peepers still a mighty but shrill chorus. Lots of birdsong. Lovely, with the windchimes gently playing. I cleaned up the beds yesterday. Mint is up as is oregano. Had to cut back the sage which is now a bush. Friend planted some beets, and we'll see how they do. Trillium is up, as is Solomon's Seal. Every year I am just about to cede them to old man winter when they pop out of the ground.

Rhododendrum hedge will bloom this week. I have to say that in spite of all fall's finery, spring is also spectacular. In Atlanta, everything was abloom and it was a world of color.

I sent off a few email queries and got the rest organized. This is a huge job and one might as well resign oneself to doing a lot a work only to get rejection. I ain't the only one.

When is my spring coming? To quote the quoter.

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If The Dog Could Blog

Friend of a friend took off from Gerlach, NV for Soldier Meadow, NV, a place of beauty and isolation and even danger, for the land is wild, the snakes are big and plentiful and coyotes and mountain lions are always stalking a ready meal. (MRE).
http://www.soldiermeadows.com/

The friend of a friend took his dog along, as one would. The dog is a 40 pound dog, a pound dog, formerly a city dog, then a suburban dog, not a farm or ranch dog. The dog had been to Soldier Meadow before, which may or may not account for his behavior, which was to take off over the hills after a rabbit. Doggy doings.

Except he didn't come back. And when the dog's master and friends called and whistled and searched, the dog was, like, gone. After a harrowing search, they finally returned to the West Coast, minus one pet. Of course all sorts of horrible images came to mind. Big ugly rattlers, stealthy cougars. Hungry coyotes. Innocent suburban dog.

This was about a week ago, maybe longer. Today I heard that the dog, hungry and tired and undoubtedly footweary, had appeared at the ranch. If animals could blog, that dog would have some story.

A Feeding Flock of Robins

While running back and forth between the hospital and home, I haven't been inclined to write or even watch much TV, but I have, nonetheless, continued to take sustenance to my friends, the Highland Scottish Cattle.

A few days ago I noticed a humongous flock of robins in the pasture, and they continue to be there day after day. Must be something to eat. Maybe worms thrive in the cow patties, or some other delectable (in robin) goody is to be found.

Yesterday the cows ate the old Easter tulips. Speaking of tulips, the very bad rabbits are eating mine already. I am somewhat at a loss what to do. They did this last year, and totalled them. I won't plant anymore. The rest of the bulbs did not sprout up this spring. I'm still not sure about the muscari. Major bummer. Thanks a lot global warming.

I finished the novel, Oil, an excellent novel. Was prepared for more violence at the end. Suspect the movie went overboard showing the gore which was not described in any disgusting detail. The movie, of course, was There Will Be Blood.

Onward,

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