This is a strange year. Like most of you, I’ve been spending far more time than usual at home, inside, seeing almost no one apart from my husband. I’ve wasted time and saved my sanity by reading, baking brownies and doing jigsaw puzzles.
This 1000 piece jigsaw of a pointillist painting by Georges Seurat was particularly difficult to do.
The weather has been strange too. Spring came about two weeks earlier than usual but overall the month has been cooler than normal. This means that snowdrops came early and are only now, a month later, beginning to fade.
I took this photo a week ago. Thanks to warm weather on Saturday, the snowdrops are now finished for the year.
I picked the first daffodils on April 12, the earliest I can remember, but the cooler weather that followed stopped their development. Stopped them short, I could say, since many are now blooming on shorter-than-normal stems. On the positive side, unless the weather suddenly heats up, I can anticipate a month or more of blossoms yet to come.
One end of the berm by the Skating Pond is warmer than the other and the daffodils always bloom earlier there.
Saturday was wonderfully warm and sunny and I took advantage of the weather to check out how things were doing in the woods. Much to my surprise and delight, the wild garlic was up, colouring the floor of the woods with its bright green leaves.
Ramps, or wild garlic, are a common sight in our woods in the spring. But they seem to be earlier than normal this year.
I didn’t have a shovel but with the help of a stick I found, I dug up a few.
We ate these, cooked along with store-bought mushrooms, for dinner last night. Delicious!
Wildflowers are beginning to bloom, including colt’s foot (Tussilago farfara) alongside the road.
Yellow is such a cheery colour in early spring.
These tiny bulbs haven’t bloomed in a few years but are now lighting up a dark spot near the front door.
Stuck at home and with cold and unpredictable weather — we had snow on April 10! — I’ve cleaned out cupboards and finally, after ten years, am tackling the boxes of family memorabilia stacked in the barn.
The first job was organizing the stuff in the barn — a huge job. (Thanks, Lex!) Many of the boxes in this stall are full of paper saved by my mother who thought everything worth saving. I’ve filled several garbage tubs with duplicate copies of write-ups and genealogical material. I will probably fill several more.
The barn isn’t the only place that needed attention. Winter ice on the lake wrecked havoc on our dock, damaging all the top boards beyond repair. We’ve removed those and will replace them soon.
Municipal regulations no longer allow permanent docks to be built but ours which was first built over a century ago is grandfathered.
We built a new bench for the Sundial Clearing, part of Timelines, and once the words are burned into the wood, we’ll put it in place.
The new bench is exactly like the old one, made like a pine box to remind us that we are always in transit.
I’m still searching for the right stone to use to replace the tall pine tree whose shadow marked the hours. But that job will have to wait until our local quarry re-opens.
What’s keeping you busy and sane during these tough times?
Your description of southern Canada sounds a lot like our spring in northern Massachusetts! After a week of warm weather in March, we are almost back into winter. Cold, Raw, wet and windy with an intermittent day of sun and warmth before we plunge back into cold, raw, wet and windy again! Stay well. I know you stay busy!
Yes, the ups and downs of our temperatures sound very similar. I hope you are staying well, Ila. I was hoping to see you at the MA Federation of Garden Club’s program day but no such luck — they were wise to cancel. Stay well!
So nice to see your landscape greening up. We’ve had such an amazing spring here. It’s been cooler than normal, with just a couple of warmer days, so bulbs, spring wildflowers and flowering shrubs and trees have had more prolonged flowering times than usual! My cool-season vegetables have largely delayed bolting, even as I’m thinking I need to gather up some interesting warm-season transplants (before they’re all snagged by newbie vegetable gardeners!) It’s still too cool to put things like peppers and tomatoes out, but that hasn’t stopped a lot of people who haven’t realized that.
I’ve taken on the challenge of doing Zoom versions of some of the presentations that I had planned to do in person — it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. It should be pretty straightforward with presentations, although it will take some getting used to. My first is about warm-season vegetables for a local nursery that’s just open up for direct shopping again. (I had done a Year-Round Vegetable Gardening program for them in early March — and volunteered to focus just on warm-season veggies in a partial repeat. It gives me something to do that’s beneficial and helpful, especially since there are so many more people wanting to grow vegetables in these times).
I’ve also been participating in some writing classes online (not on Zoom) and that was a welcome diversion in the difficult early days of this; even though some of the prompts were rather challenging, it was reflective to be asked to write about things that I never would normally write about.
We’re able to get out and walk and bike here, which is wonderful. I’ve been glad to be able to revisit various local neighborhoods during my daily walk — beyond our own large neighborhood. We’re in Stay at Home mode in our state until May 8, so we’ll see if that’s extended.
I’ve always baked our own whole-grain bread, but I’ve had fun revisiting creating sourdough starter, too. I used to use it routinely back a couple of decades ago. I AM getting a bit tired of the 3 meals a day cycle, though, but am trying to be reasonably creative about it.
Catching up on magazine reading has been another diversion, especially gardening and cooking. I’m impressed with people like you that seem willing to take on sorting projects. Even though I did a LOT of that when we moved to Asheville full-time 5 years ago, I’m realizing that I could definitely pare down some things here that I haven’t needed!
Thanks for your post. It makes me glad to know ramps grow in your woods, too.
Really enjoyed these glimpses of your life up there in cold climes. Can’t wait to see your new tree for the sundial. Bench looks great!
Bobbie
I’m not going to plant a tree but will use a rock. Stonehenge-type shape but MUCH smaller!
Pat, We’ve had exactly the same weather pattern here in Maine — and now there is snow in the forecast for later this week! But, after that, they tell us we are going to see a « pattern change » that will bring some warm weather. I’m ready; time to crack open windows and eat meals out on the porch.
Sun is coming out again…. I’ve eaten lunch twice now on the deck and hope that I’ll soon be doing it every day. I hope your pattern change is true for us, too.