I've been doing lots of gardening as the weather gets incrementally better. This post will be a real hodgepodge of gardening photos (mostly.)
The oregano had gotten out of control, taken over almost a third of the central section of my herb and butterfly garden. It's pretty hard to dig up and was the sole focus of two separate weeding sections. One afternoon this little guy jumped from the oregano near my digging...can you find him?
It was a chill day when the clouds covered the sun, and he was slow to move. Both from cold I think, and from watching me. Eventually he graced me with this lovely pose.
He did startled me for a few moments when he first emerged into the corner of my sight as I still have a frog/toad phobia, but he was little and didn't hop much but just sorta edged around. Shortly after I took this shot he disappeared underneath the leaves of this evening primrose. One year I was harvesting and pruning roman chamomile, the sprawling, fragrant, and close to the ground variety of chamomile, when a leopard frog leapt form the plants and man that scared the bejeebus out of me. Much larger than this little brown toad, the leopard frog landed on his back on the chamomile kindda like a kid sprawling on the floor of a half inflated bounce house. I remember when I shrieked, watching the pruning clippers fly out of my hand and over my head when I let them go mid-shriek like in a cartoon. Meanwhile the poor leopard frog was probably terrified by this giant booming what seemed to him subsonic screaming as he fruitlessly windmilled his spindly froggy legs trying to gain traction amidst the tangle of fringed steams and leaves of the plant. I finally had to ah, removed myself at from the garden for a while to let my heart rate decrease and give him a change to go somewhere else. I left my pruners, garden shovel and kneeling pad lay where they were at. I had several run ins with amphibians in the chamomile that summer and ripped the roman chamomile out in the fall...they didn't produce that many blooms anyway.
In other garden news asparagus is here! I've been watching it since the library closed in late march and just started eating it this weekend. I have to pick it pretty early to beat the asparagus beetles from laying their little egg cases in them...blech! I'm not the "it's all just fiber" type.
And cheerful chives from the herb garden to go with the asparagus in my eggs. I love chives. They are the first thing to really come on in the herb garden, with the oregano a close second. It's so cheering to watch the chives get bigger and bigger. I like their mild onion taste and their cheerful purple pom poms of blossoms. I just have to plant them every year to have an ongoing supply since they last two years after planting.
Last night is the first of three nights we have a freeze watch on. I spent a portion of last night choosing which pot or bucket to place over which plant. I'll have to do this Friday before Mother's Day too as well as bring in a few pots we've already planted.
The hostas are coming up, all divided plants given to me by a friend in Bexley. I love them where they are at as each year they provide more ground cover to block out the weeds.
The crab apples in the neighborhood are blooming but I can't get a nice shot of our "shockingly pink" ones because the wind has been so strong. I still remember that after all these years, the tag on the trees reading "shockingly pink."
In inside gardening news, my spider plants seem to be settling into their new lives in actual dirt quite nicely.
And this is just an interesting shot I took while playing pokemon and walking around the track at the park.
It's been a big week for Pokemon Go. Yes, I did get my Mewtwo this week, thanks for asking. Here is a picture I had to take for one of the research tasks and I just love it because it got photo bombed by a Pokemon that is the only way you can get it, is to take a picture of another Pokemon, and I got Tutu in the shot too so I just thought that was too cute.
And speaking of Tutu, apparently she runs a coconut syrup empire that we never knew about.
I've made my first recipe out of this book I got for Christmas.
I wanted to make the blueberry buttermilk pie bars but didn't have enough cornmeal on hand. Then I wanted to make these ginger molasses brownie cookie things, but didn't have the crystalized ginger on hand so I tried the new classic chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's been in the news a little bit lately. The twist is that it features a tiny amount of coriander and nutmeg. Mom and I both liked them...but Dad and Andrew did not. So much so that neither Andrew not my Dad finished their first cookie. Blew me away. I think it would make a nice addition to a holiday cookie box since it has a warm, savory flavor. I would like to try it again without the added spices as I also just like the texture and mouthfeel of them.
Be warned, they make 52 cookies. I have a sandwich bag of the doughballs in the freezer to make for later.
I also made the roll out butter cookies, twice in as many weeks but I don't have pictures. I used the last of lactose free butter sticks and the cookies turned out perfectly. Then I whiffed on the icing recipe. I was out of meringue powder and used the two egg whites but apparently the chickens lay huge eggs and I should have just used one egg white. I had to keep adding powdered sugar, every last scrap I had in the house and then I had to keep both the cookies and the icing refrigerated. The icing will just stretch over two batches so I made another batch with butter flavored crisco and that was much harder to do. I've got most of those cookies in the freezer as well.
I'm cooking up some other blog posts so as a good friend of mine often says, stay tuned!
It was a chill day when the clouds covered the sun, and he was slow to move. Both from cold I think, and from watching me. Eventually he graced me with this lovely pose.
He did startled me for a few moments when he first emerged into the corner of my sight as I still have a frog/toad phobia, but he was little and didn't hop much but just sorta edged around. Shortly after I took this shot he disappeared underneath the leaves of this evening primrose. One year I was harvesting and pruning roman chamomile, the sprawling, fragrant, and close to the ground variety of chamomile, when a leopard frog leapt form the plants and man that scared the bejeebus out of me. Much larger than this little brown toad, the leopard frog landed on his back on the chamomile kindda like a kid sprawling on the floor of a half inflated bounce house. I remember when I shrieked, watching the pruning clippers fly out of my hand and over my head when I let them go mid-shriek like in a cartoon. Meanwhile the poor leopard frog was probably terrified by this giant booming what seemed to him subsonic screaming as he fruitlessly windmilled his spindly froggy legs trying to gain traction amidst the tangle of fringed steams and leaves of the plant. I finally had to ah, removed myself at from the garden for a while to let my heart rate decrease and give him a change to go somewhere else. I left my pruners, garden shovel and kneeling pad lay where they were at. I had several run ins with amphibians in the chamomile that summer and ripped the roman chamomile out in the fall...they didn't produce that many blooms anyway.
In other garden news asparagus is here! I've been watching it since the library closed in late march and just started eating it this weekend. I have to pick it pretty early to beat the asparagus beetles from laying their little egg cases in them...blech! I'm not the "it's all just fiber" type.
And cheerful chives from the herb garden to go with the asparagus in my eggs. I love chives. They are the first thing to really come on in the herb garden, with the oregano a close second. It's so cheering to watch the chives get bigger and bigger. I like their mild onion taste and their cheerful purple pom poms of blossoms. I just have to plant them every year to have an ongoing supply since they last two years after planting.
Last night is the first of three nights we have a freeze watch on. I spent a portion of last night choosing which pot or bucket to place over which plant. I'll have to do this Friday before Mother's Day too as well as bring in a few pots we've already planted.
The hostas are coming up, all divided plants given to me by a friend in Bexley. I love them where they are at as each year they provide more ground cover to block out the weeds.
The crab apples in the neighborhood are blooming but I can't get a nice shot of our "shockingly pink" ones because the wind has been so strong. I still remember that after all these years, the tag on the trees reading "shockingly pink."
In inside gardening news, my spider plants seem to be settling into their new lives in actual dirt quite nicely.
And this is just an interesting shot I took while playing pokemon and walking around the track at the park.
It's been a big week for Pokemon Go. Yes, I did get my Mewtwo this week, thanks for asking. Here is a picture I had to take for one of the research tasks and I just love it because it got photo bombed by a Pokemon that is the only way you can get it, is to take a picture of another Pokemon, and I got Tutu in the shot too so I just thought that was too cute.
And speaking of Tutu, apparently she runs a coconut syrup empire that we never knew about.
I've made my first recipe out of this book I got for Christmas.
I wanted to make the blueberry buttermilk pie bars but didn't have enough cornmeal on hand. Then I wanted to make these ginger molasses brownie cookie things, but didn't have the crystalized ginger on hand so I tried the new classic chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's been in the news a little bit lately. The twist is that it features a tiny amount of coriander and nutmeg. Mom and I both liked them...but Dad and Andrew did not. So much so that neither Andrew not my Dad finished their first cookie. Blew me away. I think it would make a nice addition to a holiday cookie box since it has a warm, savory flavor. I would like to try it again without the added spices as I also just like the texture and mouthfeel of them.
Be warned, they make 52 cookies. I have a sandwich bag of the doughballs in the freezer to make for later.
I also made the roll out butter cookies, twice in as many weeks but I don't have pictures. I used the last of lactose free butter sticks and the cookies turned out perfectly. Then I whiffed on the icing recipe. I was out of meringue powder and used the two egg whites but apparently the chickens lay huge eggs and I should have just used one egg white. I had to keep adding powdered sugar, every last scrap I had in the house and then I had to keep both the cookies and the icing refrigerated. The icing will just stretch over two batches so I made another batch with butter flavored crisco and that was much harder to do. I've got most of those cookies in the freezer as well.
I'm cooking up some other blog posts so as a good friend of mine often says, stay tuned!
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