big garden; little beginnings

The beginnings of a veggie garden are not particularly attractive. Especially with the makeshift fence having been knocked down by the wind. [I guess that answers our question as to whether it would keep deer out. . . .]

But look closer.Wee radishi. [yes, I know. "Radishes." But I like radishi better.]

Or are they carrots?

Impossible to tell at this very early stage with only the cotyledons* present.

Which reminds me of one of the early stories in my family lore: the time my mother dispatched my dad out into the garden for some basil leaves for the salad. "There are several plants just across from the porch door," she advised. Five minutes later, he was back, sans basil.

"Are you sure that's where they are?" he asked.

She stalked out and gestured towards several small plants. "Right there!" she said, and ripped off several leaves.

"I thought they looked a lot like pepper plants." he ventured.

"Not at all," she insisted, and offered him a leaf to taste. He made a face.

They ate "basil" leaves on their salad until the first small pepper formed on the basil bush. . . .

Anyway - here are the strahwrberries.More plants to come.
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*the first leaves to appear in a germinating seed. Apparently pronounced KAY-tee-LAY-dn, although left to my own devices, I'd go with co-TIE-le-don. Rhymes with 'go! tie one on.'

and-a-one, and-a-two. . . .

These guys are glorious!

And yes, these are part of White Flower Farm's The Works.

yet. . . .

At first light, the king made it out first.

"Pi, I think your first daffodil is here."

I looked. Yes indeed! There it was, just to the left of the bench. As I looked, I saw others: three, all told. Each different.

What colours in this, the first I photographed! Yellow, white, and peach:And here, the first we saw - the biggest one:Here, the third, almost overlooked, shyly nestled just outside the woods' edge.Finally, this is where I will look for more blooms tomorrow!Officially, spring has sprung here at the greenwood.

not yet. . . .

OK. We're several days into spring, but it hasn't officially sprung here at the greenwood.
See?

Yes, I know it's foggy. But look closer: no daffodils.

Not really. Not yet.

Here's one that may pop in the next day or so.
Wait! What's that? Off in the distance?
Is that yellow? Daffodils?!
Sheesh. . . . just across the street - and everywhere else I look - the daffodils are out. Just not here. Just not yet.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of what's gotta be my favorite place in the whole world.We're here. We're waiting. . . .

[note to self: 200 daffodil bulbs don't go nearly as far as one would think. . . .]

I have been remiss

Since the last post - the one about snow - the snow melted in 70 degree weather.

Thereafter, it snowed again, but didn't stick.

We've had a couple cold days, so have relished the last days of burning a fire in the fireplace before it really gets too warm. Meanwhile, a couple of updates:

The first gift plant? It survived the worst of the winter apparently evergreen. I had high hopes for spring blossoms but discovered this the other day:

It appears the deer have found it. And found it tasty.

It now has a little deer cage around it, but the damage may be done. . . .

Dratted deer!

Let's see. . . . in other news, the daffodils are coming up. This is a multi-purpose picture, showing (1) the snow gone, (2) daffodil greenings and (3) red marks and white flags - which leads to other news: the installation of an "invisible" fence for Luther. The red marks are Miss Utility powerline indicators; the white flags, the visual warning of the invisible fence location.

Here is the preliminary layout of the veggie garden. Yes, those are invisible fence markers behind the veggie garden. . . . what was I thinking?! In any event, a fence of some sort will have to around it, if only to keep the deer (if not Luther) out.

Speaking of Luther, here he is in his "I could go either way" pose. His favorite pose outdoors.
Here's a close up.
It also shows a strange feature of our boy Luther: he has two left ears. We call this his 'comb-over' look. He looks like this much of the time.

I know you are all wondering about the birthday toy, which I wrote about here.

Here it is today.
It's multiplying! Even though I keep throwing bits of it away.

Coming up next: the making of a fleece toy. Turquoise. Scissors, cutting and 4-strand braiding. Riveting stuff! Don't miss it. [teaser photo to the right, showing basic ingredients. . . .]

snow day!

An essay [mainly] in pictures*:

The lutyens bench is upholstered in snow.
Must. Go. Outside.

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. . . ."
Running fool.
Our ferocious hound!
Time?
I think so. Inside, a fire blazes.
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*and captions. . . .

one year ago

one year ago today, on Leap Day, Luther was born. That's him, I do believe, 4th from the left.




He was born little boy Blueboy and we had no idea if it would be Blueboy or Greenboy coming home to live with us. Turned out it was little Blueboy.

He grew.

and grew.

Grew.And grew some more.

And now his back is taller than the dining room table.No, there's no dining room table in this shot. But you can see that Luther's belly easily clears Ottoman Turk - who does duty as the coffee table - and by extrapolation [how's that for a word?!] you may conclude that what I say is truth. . . .

His first rawhide bone was too big for him to carry. Now, he can go through the biggest ones with ease and he rarely gets one anymore because I can't help but think it's not all that great for him to be eating all that rawhide.

We switched to a big heavy rope with knots in it. That lasted several weeks until he learned how to shred it. This is his second rope toy - shredded.
Also: the knots hurt when he swings the rope and makes contact, and when he flings it in the air, we worry it will crash into the furniture or clear breakables off the table. In the morning while we have our coffee, he likes to do a nunchuck routine on the foyer rug. . . . It's a bit hair-raising.As you see.

For his birthday, we are trying something new. A braided fleece toy. He likes it! After Christmas, I had found a much smaller red, green and white one on sale at PetSmart for a quarter. Yep, that's right: 25 cents. I brought it home. We call it the Italian snake. It's lasted almost a month - Woo hoo! Of course, it's been shredded down to its two end knots, but Luther is quite fond of it. I think he was just getting tired of getting hit in the head with the heavy rope nunchuck.

Here is the birthday boy with his birthday toy.

Happy birthday, Luther! Let the games commence.P.S. - Sister Saphira sent this picture of her birthday celebration - happy birthday Saphy!