Rumours of Spring are Overrated

It's been windy (60-80ks an hour), rainy, it's hailed a bit here and there, and we've had frosts... exactly what happened to Spring is a mystery to me.

Having said that, my plants seem to be surviving okay for the moment; my greens are up and growing, my carrots are moving right along, and I finally got some peas to sprout (which is to say Nature finally deigned to let me have some pea plants). In fact, it's just about time for my grazing method of thinning for the greens, which consists of me eating the wee plants as I pull them up. Can't resist!

I planted some shrubs a few weeks ago, and they seem to be doing alright too, so I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly. I'm just a bit tired of this silly season.

I'm really, really hoping for some consistently warmer weather. I will be very happy if I don't see another jacket until November!

Daniel Gets A Weekend!

And made good use of it by going trout fishing in downtown Boise. I'm not sure if there are any other capital cities where a person could feasibly walk down to a trout stream after work, but it can be done here!

He went with a few friends and caught the only fish of the day... and quite the fish it was too! A wild rainbow trout (as opposed to a bred one that they stock the Boise River with) about 60cm long. Nice work Daniel!

In case you're wondering, we didn't eat it. I think Daniel was right when he said it was just too beautiful to cook. Hopefully it's still out there doing its fishy thing.

And yes, he's still grinning about it...

Southern Illinois Sojourn

Well, it's taken me forever to get around to this, but we made it back from our trip to southern Illinois in one piece. And a fine time we had, too. We spent most of our time catching up with family and friends, which was lovely, but managed to fit in a few expeditions.

The weather was a surprise... it was near freezing when we left Boise, but they were having a bit of a heatwave in Illinois, with high temperatures around the 29 degrees C mark. Talk about your inappropriate clothing! We'd packed jeans and windcheaters, expecting temps in the low 20's. We actually ended up getting ourselves some cheapy shorts it was so warm. I even managed to get myself a bit sunburnt before I got smart and bought some sunscreen.

But back to a detail or two. On the morning of the first day, we went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, which is just across the Mississippi River from Illinois. I love this place, and was wanting to see what it looked like in the very early spring, and in fact these are the only photos I'm going to post. They have acres and acres of magnificent gardens, many of which were first built 150 years ago. The Linnaeus Greenhouse is the oldest greenhouse west of the Mississippi, and here it is in all its glory:

They grow a variety of plants inside, but we were fortunate enough to be there when the camellias were blooming. Camellias are too tender to grow outdoors in Missouri (and Idaho, for that matter). It made me think of Aunty Gypsy, which of course made me smile.

I came to a bit of an understanding about gardens while we were there. I have always planted things first and worried about the hardscape later, but it really needs to be done the other way around. I'd read that one should think about the structure first, but I guess I didn't really completely understand it until I got to see the structures behind the plants before they burst into bloom.

Here's what I mean:

This garden wouldn't have worked at all if the plants came first. It's not an outdoor garden, by the way, it's all under glass and they call it the Temperate House for the types of plants they grow. In fact, beyond that rear wall is a selection of Australian natives... always good to see!

And just so I can FINALLY get this posted, following is a selection of my favourite photos from the gardens.

This is from a tropical garden that is housed inside an enormous dome called the Climatron in the garden - the dome has been in existence for 50 years now:

Here are some of the most amazing daffodils I've ever seen. I'm thinking about planting some in my garden if I can find them:

Here are a few photos of the Japanese Garden. It covers several acres, and is much more beautiful than these photos would have you believe. Lots of ideas here for dry country gardening, methinks (water notwithstanding, of course):

Every garden needs a sculpture or two. As you might imagine, this garden has hundreds:

They even have nifty taps! This one is from the Ottoman Garden:

And, finally, here's me... before the sunburn took hold:

If you're interested, the garden's website is www.mobot.org. It's well worth checking out.

All in all, we had a good time. Ate some proper eggs and chicken at Daniel's brother's place, feasted on Easter Sunday, played with our friends' kids... just as a family holiday should be.

Cheers!

Spring has Sprung!

And the grass has riz... or at least, the weeds have. Of course.

The daffodils are blooming...

And so is the apricot. The bees are very happy about this, as evidenced by the little chappy in the photo, and so am I... except that this is an "on" year for the apricot and I am wondering if I'm going to go crazy trying to process all the fruit as I usually do.

Last weekend I planted peas, carrots, dill, spinach, lettuce, mesclun and rocket outside. We had quite a bit of rain this week (yay!) and a few frosts (uh-oh!). I'm hoping the soil is warm enough that a few frosty mornings won't kill my seeds. Having said that, seeds are cheap so I think it's worth the gamble. I'm particularly excited about the carrots. I've never actually grown them before, and I got a heirloom variety that I can save some seeds from if all goes according to plan.

I also heard about a weed killing method that seems to be working quite well... our trusty old friend vinegar! You just pour it on the weeds and they start dying within the day (as long as it doesn't rain). It seems to be doing quite the job on the dandelions, but I think it will take more than one application. It will kill lawn and other plants, too, so one has to be judicious in the application, but I suspect I will be keeping Heinz vinegar in production this year!

Incidentally, I don't know about Australia, but over here the cheap vinegar is actually made from a petroleum by-product. Aaaaaarrrrrggghhh! Just what we need - more stupid uses for fossil fuels. That's why I use Heinz - it's made from corn. Now of course there's a whole debate about corn, but I think it still rates better than petroleum.

I used to work with a woman who said one of the joys of spring for her was making a salad out of the new dandelion leaves. I thought I might try one before I set about killing them, just in case they really are one of the joys of spring. It's not something I would recommend. Ours are so bitter they make one's tongue want to strangle one for being so stupid. I think I'll stick with rocket.

We have blue skies and (almost) warm weather today. Methinks a barbecue might be the go for dinner.

Cheers!

So Much for Spring?

Well, after all my excitement about planting peas and and sunshine, here's what greeted us on Saturday...

Eighteen centimetres of snow in the foothills! We got about three or four centimetres in the valley. Fortunately it had pretty much melted on the valley floor by noon and today (Tuesday), I spent a good hour or so outside digging in the dirt. Yay! Now that we have switched to daylight savings hours it doesn't get dark until after 8pm, so I get to play outside.

I am thrilled beyond belief with the amount of earthworms I have - I was digging up spadesfull of them! This also means that I have murdered a few... glad to get that out of the way. The first murder is always unpleasant.

I'm almost (but not quite) hoping for a late hard frost to knock the blossom off my apricot tree so it isn't quite so prolific, but I think I'd rather this glorious weather continue. Perhaps I should just have a chat with the neighbourhood squirrels and birds to let them know they're welcome to as many apricots as they can get their furry little paws and busy beaks around.

In the meantime, I have bulbs popping up all over, the crocus are in full bloom, and my johnny jump-ups have their first flowers. Spring is definitely one of the joys of living in this part of the world.

And, all things being equal, I will FINALLY get to plant my peas this week.... once I've dug all the onion grass out of my raised beds.

How Do You Know Spring Is Nearly Here?

1. You start leaning towards the light like a house plant.

2. On the first day that it is sunny and warm enough to open a window or two, you find that there are about fifteen cats in every window. This is in spite of the fact that there are only two cats living with you.

3. You make your weekly batch of soup for lunches the next week, and the recipe does not involve pearl barley.

4. The seeds you ordered arrive...

5. ...you plant them (albeit indoors and under lights), and they sprout! This is always miraculous.

6. Your daffodils start getting themselves organised.

7. You read that the best time to plant peas is when the lilac buds are as big as a mouse's ear. You check the lilacs at your office, and the buds are as big as a mouse's ear! You make plans for Sunday, and a mental note to buy a lilac bush.

8. Your crocuses bloom! This is a very definite sign that spring is almost here.

9. You decide "Bugger housework, I'm going outside to get dirty!". Oh, wait, that actually isn't a seasonal thing for me, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

10. You seriously consider trading in the telly for a clothesline.

11. Life is good.

Special Scarves

In 2009 Idaho hosted the Special Olympics, and as part of their efforts the organizing committee asked for volunteers to knit or crochet enough blue and white scarves so that every participant could have one. The idea was so popular and so successful that the Idaho folks decided to do the same for this year's Idaho Special Winter Games. I heard about it through the Crafty Folks Underground Network (that's not really what it is, it's a word of mouth thing, but it amuses me to think there's a network of subversive crocheters and knitters out there).

Since I had finished a project and I like to have something to keep out of trouble on these still chilly evenings, I decided to participate. We were given a wool brand, colours, and dimensions, but other than that it was up to us whether we crocheted or knitted and what pattern we did.

Here's what I came up with:

I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and it was fun to do, too. I got the patterns from here: http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/scarves.php. They have all sorts of links to all sorts of scarves. I fiddled with the patterns a bit, of course. There are a lot of nifty ideas out there. I never knew that you could do a ribbed pattern using crochet, although it seems fabulously obvious now. It chews up the wool, though!

The scarves are now sitting in the kitchen sink soaking, and I will drop them off as soon as they're dry.

Oh, I forgot to mention that our friend Karen was the mascot for the 2009 Special Olympics. Here she is in all her Olympic glory: