Category Archives: Country Life

Gardening and Pie

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This is the time of year for all things garden related.

Yesterday, I de-thistled our asparagus bed. Once the spears are up, you can’t rototill the bed. And it was full of thistles. So, I dug them up with my hand trowel so they won’t go to seed and infest the rest of the garden. They aren’t very difficult as weeding goes, but there were a lot of them. Resulting in a blister on my palm, even whilst wearing gardening gloves. Oh well. I harvested a batch of asparagus this afternoon that we ate with dinner.

Today hubby ran the rototiller in the rest of the vegetable garden in preparation for spring planting. Our seeds finally arrived in the mail today! There was a backlog at all the seed suppliers. Everyone is wanting to plant a garden while they are home avoiding the coronavirus. We put in our first row for the year, containing turnips, icicle radishes, and a variety mix of beets. We will plant more vegetables over the next few days.

I also harvested some of our rhubarb today. It wasn’t enough for a pie, so I added some blueberries from the freezer and made a blueberry-rhubarb custard pie. I always use a butter pie crust. No Crisco for this girl. Blueberries were what I had available so I altered a recipe I found for rhubarb custard pie. It turned out just fine. In fact, it as downright tasty. I look at baking as an art form, so I always feel free to make whatever adjustments suit my fancy.

A Plethora of Birds

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We have seen a plethora of birds around our house lately. Varied species.

We have a little family in this birdhouse in our red maple. The birdhouse was built by my husband and has seen one or two broods of young fledged every year. Usually it is sparrows. This year I think it is house finches.

We ran out of seed for our bird feeder two or three weeks ago. I usually stop feeding in the spring. I figure the birds can easily find their own food by then. This year I was going to continue feeding since we are staying at home isolating, and enjoy watching the birds. But my mail order sources have been out of seed. Everyone else must be thinking the same.

Even so, we are graced with many beautiful birds. The woodpeckers of course. I feel like they are special friends since they are here with us year round.

And we have been seeing the eastern bluebirds many times each day. We see them all over our property. We’re not sure if we have several pairs of bluebirds or one pair that is very active.

There are numerous goldfinches. They often flit by as I look out the kitchen window. I have seen them sitting on the lawn munching on dandelion blooms.

We have a pair of rose breasted grosbeaks that we see once or twice each day. This is the first year I have ever noticed them here.

And today, for the first time, we saw an oriole. I have seen pictures, but they do not do the bird justice. The orange is so brilliant that it is striking.

We see these birds in various areas of our yard, but they especially like to sit on our power line and jump from branch to branch in our trumpet vine. We hear the sounds of chainsaws, and trees being felled in the small valley down the hill from us, and hope that we are not seeing this increase in birds because they are being displaced.

We hope the birds are increasing in number and that the trend will continue. They are jewels of nature and we take joy in their presence.

Woods Walk

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A couple days ago, before the May 9 snow, we went for a walk through our woods. I love this old tree stump with roots that marks the entrance to our campfire pit in the woods.

The woods are full of jack-in-the-pulpit right now. I look forward to finding them again later when the seed pods are ready to pop. The way they slowly open when you squeeze them is always fun.

We have woodland violets in white, purple, and a combination like these.

Euonymus on fence post by our shop.

Heading back inside after our walk. Shelby and Zekie came along.

Shelby needed the exercise. She doesn’t want to go outside much anymore unless we are going for a car ride or a walk. She says just dogs hang out in the pasture!

And Zekie must be involved in everything that his people do. Right down to following me to the wood crib to bring in a load of wood for the wood burner. It makes him happy to have a job

Property Walk

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Viburnum

I did a walk around our flowerbeds this afternoon to see what was in bloom. The viburnum beside the house is still in full bloom. The flowers are holding on a long time this year because of the unseasonably cool weather. The drift of scent every time we go near it is delightful.

Bleeding heart (Dicentra)

The bleeding hearts are just starting to bloom. Soon there will be a huge mound of them flowering. Their ferny foliage is an added bonus.

Dogwood bloom

The dogwood in front of our house is nearing the end of its flowering phase for this year although it is still beautiful.

Trillium
The trillium is at its peak right now. I would love to split it and have more, but they are so particular that I don’t dare.
Honeysuckle?

We have a few of these bushes. I believe they are wild honeysuckle, but I’m not sure.

Myrtle bed
Dogwood in full bloom
Corner of yard

The above three areas are from the yard in front of our house.

Rhododendron
Side yard

This side of the yard has plum bushes, river birches, and a redbud tree. The green bushes in the background are royal lilacs that will bloom in a few weeks.

Narcissus

The narcissus are still in fully bloom. They are staying around a long time because of the cool temperatures.

Flowering almost tree
Flowering almond

And last, but not least of our flowering plants is this flowering almond tree. It is tiny, but oh so beautiful!

A Day in My Life

Cooking, Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, , , ,

Today was one of those days where I got a lot of necessary things done. Those things that you don’t like to do, but it feels good to have them done.

Our township provides a dumpster that is at the township garage for one weekend each year for spring cleanup. Anyone in the township can use it to dispose of large items, until it is full. And you need to get there quick, before it gets full. Today was the start of that weekend. I hauled two loads up to the dumpster for disposal, consisting of an old, musty Christmas tree, a couple pieces of decomposing wicker furniture, and various odds and ends.

This afternoon, I spent a few hours doing various forms of paperwork for our dog rescue group. I worked on some financial paperwork, some filing, and some educational material. Not fun, but things that are necessary.

And since I was on a roll doing dog stuff, I decided to give three of our dogs their annual DHLPPP-type shots that were in the refrigerator. Followed by cleaning litter boxes and picking up poop outside. I clean up our dog yard every time the dogs go outside now, because we have two who apparently consider themselves to be connoisseurs of poop. Even so, I sometimes run around with the scoop yelling “drop it” while chasing the offender. It’s a fine line between following the defecating dog around closely enough to get there before one of the other dogs grabs the result, but not so closely as to interrupt the dog doing his business. Such is my life.

As a reward for a productive day, I made Indonesian stir fried noodles for supper. Noodles, vegetables, and fish. Yum!

Just a day in my life.

Not Today

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals,

Zekie is sometimes an amazing dog. (Other times he’s just annoying. )

I recently shared how he did such a good job of chasing away geese for our neighbor’s pond. Well, we were sitting on the patio a couple days ago and we heard geese flying overhead and honking. Zekie looked at us. My hubby asked Zekie, “are you going to get those geese?” Zekie ran to the back chain link patio gate and stared at our neighbor’s pond!

The geese never landed so we had to tell him, “not today, Zekie.”

What a smart boy!

Spring Plantings

Country Life, Gardens, , ,

The weather was sunny and relatively warm, so we got back to gardening and working outside today.

I transplanted blue flag irises, Solomon’s seal, a fern, and a columbine into our new raised beds. I also dig up narcissus bulbs that had multiplied so much that they didn’t bloom anymore from being so crowded, and planted them in various locations.

Then I sat on the patio and read, followed by a walk around the yard. The photos above are of my plum tree in bloom. We have yet to eat any plums from it. Despite being covered in blooms, it only yields two or three plums and the birds beat us to those.

The row of serviceberries is blooming too.

The redbuds are nearly ready to burst forth with their glorious pinky-purple blooms.

The hostas are well on their way for the season.

Even the oriental lilies are off to a good start.

I like to get lots of gardening done early in the season. It really seems to pay off. The weeds are still small and the garden is damp and soft so they come loose with an easy tug. And any plants that are moved when small, grow to be enjoyed later in the summer. Plus, it is not hot yet!

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, , ,

The last couple days have been filled with gardening.

Yesterday we split enough hostas to fill the back of last year’s new raised bed. We also started lining the English ivy bed behind it with hosta.

Hubby used the tractor to haul decomposed wood chips to the vegetable garden. I split one of our smaller groups of daffodils and ended up planting 51 bulbs. I also split my comfrey plant in two. I like the comfrey because it draws hummingbird moths like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Today we tilled a smaller, new flower bed to prepare it for planting. I also transplanted a columbine, and planted a lily that I overwintered on the side porch. Hubby transplanted a volunteer cedar seedling.

Then, I sat on the patio with the dogs and read. To be honest, I am kind of hoping for rain tomorrow so I can have a break.

Preparing the Gardens

Still Life

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens,
The Kitchen Window

Birdwatching

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I moved our bird feeder to the front yard this year, so we can watch the birds from the living room. Actually my main motivation was so that the cats could see the bird feeder.

In an effort to get the cats to be more active, rather than like this.

The woodpecker is named Woodrow. There is probably more than one, but we call them all Woodrow. Except for the time when it was obvious that a male and female came to feed. She was known as Mrs. Woodrow.

And yes, the cats did take an interest in birdwatching. So did Zekie!