Ooops.

I think we forgot to wish you a happy March!

I know, I'm shamelessly giving you pictures of flowers and a toddler instead of the post I promised on cakes and ingredients substitution when baking. But you see, only 20 mns into the nap there was a diaper leak and a very cranky toddler. So we spent the entire day outside. Surely she should take a big nap tomorrow. You know, to catch up?
Right. Tomorrow then.

Storms, Woodchips and Blossoms.

Our bad weather continued: hail, high winds and sheets of water. Very exciting. And even more exciting a forecast of snow for last Friday night. Sadly, by then, the storms had passed and we had a hard freeze but no snow. I had very disappointed children on my hands. Snow in sacramento... what is the world coming to?

                                                                                                                  The View From My Office.

The hard freeze though... we have those regularly and it is a big threat to farmers in the valley. Almond trees are very sensitive to frost and so are plum trees. Unfortunately, our plum tree was in full bloom when the cold weather hit. Hopefully we will still get a few plums. Usually we harvest more than 40 lbs of plums so it would be a great loss.

                                                                                                                           Plum Blossoms.

 

                                                                                         Plum Blossoms

Luckily most of the apricot blossoms were still shut tight. Last year was not good for apricots, maybe this year I can make apricot jam again.

                                                                                                                                Apricot Blossoms.

It was most definitely not hammock weather.

                                                                                                              The Hammock Over The Swamp.

And the yard was a swamp so nothing got done in the garden.
Well, almost nothing... Mark put wheelbarrows full of wood chips on the new-future-vegetable garden and the chickens went to work: in 2 days they had spread all the wood chips around.

I love team work.

Lamb's Lettuce, Rain, Sun and Hail.

We had a whole week of sun and then 3 days of rain and to my surprise one day among the spinach, Mache (aka Lamb's Lettuce or Corn Salad) appeared. I had planted it last year when it had done moderatly well. I always let a few vegetables go to seeds. I like surprises! But I had forgotten the Mache completely.
That morning I thought it would make a great lunch for the next day with a few soft boiled eggs.
Alas, later that day we had hail several time and well, the mache was just not looking so perky anymore. Ah well. Such is the life of a gardener. Luckily some of them were protected by the spinach and we ate those. Others went to very happy chickens. And of course some will go to seed. To be reborn in late fall for another surprise meal or two.

                                                                                                           Lamb's Lettuce, February 2011.

Inspired by Down To Earth. 

Busy But No Bees?

We have had lovely busy days around here. Spring decided to come early it seems. With temperatures in the 65-70F range and beautiful sunny days nature around us is literally exploding. I've been outside from sun up to sun down: trimming roses ( I hesitate to call what I do pruning because it sounds like I know what I'm doing and I'm not. But it works so that's ok, my roses are full of blooms by April), digging up the old strawberry patch: the plants were too old and not producing well anymore. Laying down more cardboard, manure and bone meal in the new potager. And taking care of some of the weeds because boy, they exploded too. And the mosquitoes too. A lot less fun those.
But that's too much talking when really we just tried to soak up as much "spring" as we could. Because of course bad weather will surely come back before May arrives. But in the meantime maybe you'd like a tour of the garden on this beautiful February days?

                                                                                      Brussels Sprouts.

                                                                                         Red Russian Kale.

                                                                                             Red Russian Kale.

                                                                                     Chinese Cabbage Flowers.

                                                                                          Calendula.

                                                                                          Buds In The Sunset.

                                                                                      Moonlight.               

Unfortunately, by Sunday, my eldest daughter was coming down with the flu. So I've put back on my doctor's suit for a few days and I'm making this several times a day. Hopefully nobody else will get it... we have 2 birthdays to celebrate this week... Now I need a cake plan.
And there is something worrisome: in spite of 3 days of these temperatures, I haven't seen any bees. None. Usually at 65-70F I see a few. I always let some plants go to seed for them so that they have food in early spring and I have a lot of them visiting on the years before... but this year nothing. 

The Thief And The Sunflowers.

 

Little Thief!

This was last year.

This is this year:

 

Little Thief The 2nd.

Now they are kind of cute and most definitely entertaining for the dogs, the toddler and the rest of us.
However.
They would win hands down any and all food competitions.
They really are rats with a furry tail.
Which I wouldn't care if,
They were not also comparable with the amount of food they eat.
I don't care if they eat the bird seeds.
But.
Could they please leave my Apricots and Sunflowers alone this Summer, thankyouverymuch.