vernal

 

after an exciting day, weather-wise, Saturday (rain, sun, rain, sun, RAINSUN, hail! lightning! LOTS OF HAIL!), it was really lovely when we got a sunny afternoon and evening today. I cannot believe how pretty everything looks. That picture on the left is my neighbour's yard (taken from our deck). Isn't it like some gorgeous park? Those diagonal lines of gold-green speckles that patter across the trunks of the doug firs are the blossoms of a native dogwood tree. Around seven in the evening, the sun casts some rays through the fir branches and lights up these blossoms. One of my favorite sights of the year. On the right, I've potted up some tomato plants, until I have time/space to get them into the garden properly. And some pansies await transplant into a window box.

 

 

The deck is my one reliable full-sun location. Thus, it becomes my staging zone for all the seeds I'm starting. There are sunflowers, calendula, poppies, and some onions a friend gave me that I separated out. Lots of roses and herbs getting potted up - I'm even giving French tarragon another go (growing it in gravel and poor soil, as this combination has given me the best luck over the last few years).

 



 

 

Another sign of spring: the big leaf maple trees are in blossom!

 

And we (rather, Cass) made beignets. This year, he used a mixture of pancake mix and some semolina flour, and instead of adding water, he mixed it up with some reduced fat buttermilk we had in the fridge and grade B maple syrup. Beautiful.

In other news, after another round of dreams about my professor (one good, one tragic), Cass insisted I write the man's wife and check up. He's made it through four weeks of radiation, with only one more to go, and his sarcoma has started to shrink. Amazing. Almost there. Almost there.