Forsythia; Always one of the early bloomers!

On a sunny March day I decided to scour the yard for signs of life.  As Annie Dillard says in the book “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,”  often one must get down close to the ground to see the smallest living things.  This turned out to be the case for much of what I found in the yard that day.  I also saw evidence from last year alongside new growth, as with this plot of “money plant.”

"Money Plant," also known as "Honesty," and by scientists as Lunaria annua.

Against all probability, it looks as though my roses have survived the winter and are cheerfully pushing out leaves.  Last year a bought a bunch of new “old” roses.  You know, the scandalously fragrant ones that open up all at once looking luxurious and wanton.  Well, since they were new last year I never got to enjoy that show and I feared that the winter might have killed them.  Happy Day!  They are very primly showing their intentions right now and I hope they will reveal their true colors in a few months.

They have names like Maiden's Blush and Blanc de Coubert

Now before scrolling down, take a deep breath and imagine the most fragrant scent of early spring.  If you can’t smell it yet, your mind will probably create the fragrance once you look at the photo.  I find that if I bring a small bunch of these into the house and put them in a vase, the WHOLE house smells sweet for days.  Yes, it is ………..

Daphne odora also known as "Winter Daphne"

Other “All Stars”  showing their faces in my yard this early include …

Pulmonaria which also carries the name Lungwort. I haven't investigated but I bet it has medicinal use in treating lung ailments.

Here's my ever loyal Cardoon. Always up in March.

The rhubarb is looking happy!

The beautiful purple Helleborus can almost take your breath away!

On a more practical note, I actually grow things that can be eaten.  They even come up on their own each year.

The name implies that it will be useful against vampires.

Two kinds of sorrel are used all summer in salads, soups and meat dishes.

Inside my greenhouse I am daring to start basil, collards and tomatoes.  Yes, I know I probably shouldn’t put my tomatoes out until mid-June, and by that time these starts will be HUGE and resent transplanting.  I am just hoping for a burst of early warm weather so I can put their little feet into warm ground and surround them with my trusty old Wall-o-Water protectors.  I’ve had some very good luck with those and have had huge harvests as a result.  I only have a couple tomatoes sprouting, but the collards and basil are looking vigorous!

Collards in round pots and tiny little basils behind.

With luck and some sun there will be more to report soon.

Our Obama/Biden Shrine

By election night I decided that the campaign sign could come in from the yard and be used for party decorations.   Larry and I spent the afternoon cooking and decorating until people began showing up at 6:00.  We had many more than we originally expected.  The more the merrier I say!

The younger generation of Obama supporters - They will vote next time.

Jolly Returns watchers!

A mother and daughter politically in sync.

Jody and her son discuss a result.

Jody was also responsible for bringing the dessert.  What a huge surprise it was!!  Very tasty and also so cute!

Obama cupcakes brought by Jody - Delicious!

Kadee unloading the first truckload.

This is our 20 year old “farmer” unloading the heap of apples, pail by pail, and transporting them to the cider press in the garage (just a few feet away).  This is a girl who was born to be a farmer!  She hopes, someday, to have her own organic farm with fruits, vegetables, chickens (for eggs), and goats (for milk and cheese).

Kadee pours a pail of apples into the grinder.

The grinder is the first step.  It crushes the apples so that the pressing is more effective.  The process is very labor intensive.  The only automated part is the crushing.  After the apples are poured in here, you hit a switch and the gears grind and crush the apples, and deposit them into the wooden pail below the hopper.

Screwing down the press.

Once the apples are crushed the wooden barrel is pushed over to the pressing area.  Someone screws down the press and squeezes the juice out.  It flows along a wooden chute, through a filter, and into a pail … ready for bottling.

Grandpa Larry at the bottling station.

Even though we pressed more than 1000 pounds of apples that day, it looks like grandpa’s orchard is STILL full of apples.  I guess there are some pies in our future!

Here is an example of the copious quantities of beautiful apples still growing in the orchard.

After all the hard work we had a lovely lunch prepared by Grandma Bess.

And finally we took family photos in the orchard ... you may see this in a holiday card!

Charlie's girls have nothing to fear! "I've got your back, girls, " he says.

These warm autumn days have given Charlie a chance to spend his days outside with “the girls.”  I wish he could live out there with them all the time, but there are two problems with that.  First, he’s just a little banty frizzle rooster, and although his feathers are absolutely delightful to look at, they don’t offer much insulation.  Alas, he’s really just a silly little accessory rooster even though he thinks of himself as a very brave and mighty fellow. Second, a particular set of neighbors complained to us about the crowing back when we had full size roosters outdoors.  So Charlie’s fate is sealed; he lives in the house.  He has his own roomy coop (a dog kennel) and during the days that are too cold to go outside, he runs around the house wearing his little chicken diaper.  Chickens, unlike bunnies and cats, cannot be trained to use a litter box as far as I know.

I have been letting all the pets run around the yard on nice mornings.  Everyone is great about staying in the yard.  The girls have discovered our wild areas and have become voracious consumers of the ripe Oregon Grape berries.  I had some thoughts of collecting the berries myself and making Oregon Grape jam, but I think I’ll forget that for this year and let them enjoy their treat.  In the mid-afternoon I put all the chickens away because we have kids tromping through the yard on their way home from school, and they sometimes forget to close the neighbor’s gate when they pass through it.  This is a problem because that is the neighbor with the big white husky dog that killed our beautiful Buttercup a year and a half ago.  Since then, the neighbors gave the dog “Chicken Aversion” training, but I still don’t trust him, and I don’t want to have to follow another trail of feathers into the bushes.  Buttercup was the grand matriarch of the group and I bet she sacrificed herself to save the others.  We are so lucky to have our gentle border collie, MacKenzie, who is never aggressive toward any of our animals.  I wonder if she would have defended Buttercup if she had been present during the attack?  Guess I’ll never know!

Dear Buttercup RIP

Blackberry and plum cordials - testing various recipes

This summer/autumn, as always, I practiced what might be called gleaning or foraging.  I, my kids, my husband and my mother-in-law, went to various sites in Western Washington to pick free fruit and veggies.  We went to parks and abandoned lots and to friend’s orchards and gardens.  Most gardeners, like me, have a habit of planting way more of a crop than they can possibly use.  Thus, I have tomatoes to share, and others have beets or plums to share.  The copious quantities of plums and blackberries we got this year had to become something more than freezer fodder.  I froze blackberries for winter smoothies, and vacuum sealed plums for winter desserts, but the remaining fruit went into big jars sprinkled with sugar and spices and then drenched with cheap vodka or sometimes a combination of vodka and brandy.  I have decanted and strained the jars I started in August and I must say that most of them are absolutely fabulous.  I find that those with less sugar (1/3 c. per quart jar rather than 1 1/2 c.) are much better.  They actually have the taste of the fruit, whereas the sweeter ones tend to taste mostly like sweet syrup.  This year I was organized enough to keep close track of my recipes.  My family and friends will be graced with these bottles of ambrosia as holiday gifts.

I also made pear liquer, which I may post later.  I grew pears in bottles on our tree by wiring the bottles over baby pears and then letting them grow inside the bottles.  Then I washed the “schmutz” out of the bottle and poured in “Everclear”  which I got in Oregon.  No bad bugs will ever grow in there and eventually the pear flavor will infuse the Everclear.  I know beacuse I have a bottle of this concotion that I made many years ago.  I remember wiring the bottle to the tree with my daughter in a baby backpack behind me …. she is now 20 years old!