Surprises

It's that time of year, often called Springtime, where exciting and new things are happening all the time.  It also is a very busy time of year as once the air outside warms up, that is where all the focus lies.  So I have been a slacker in the fiber department, but as busy as Jeff's bees outdoors.

However, the first nice surprise came from inside the house.  I have an old cactus that is the grandchild or maybe great grandchild of a slip that a neighbor gave me more than 25 years ago.  At that time we were a very young family living in the village.   Our next door neighbor was an older couple, very kind and helpful to a young couple with little ones.  Mrs. Lulek was a colorful woman who smoked cigarettes and was full of old time parenting advice.  Mr. Lulek worked at the local dump where his hobby was to bring home things other people had thrown away, fix them up and then sell them.  He also raced a stock car at a nearby dirt race track, at that time being old enough to be most of the other driver's grandfather.  Mrs. L would come over for coffee almost everyday, dispensing her wisdom, recipes and clouds of smoke equally.  I was very grateful to her as my own mother at that time was living far from us and my mother in law was so good at "not interfering" that many times I needed Helen's good advice.  I still have her recipes and the cactus.  She was a dear woman.  The cactus only blooms occasionally and this year is one of those times.

The flowering cactus

The other surprise came from the chickens.  They are let out of the coop every morning now at daybreak. I go inside to make sure all is well.  Lately the Golden Comet I call Goldie has been laying an egg on the floor before I even get there.  Some times the eggs are very soft shelled and she or one of the others will then eat it.  Very Bad habit!  So I clean it up as soon as I see it.  Then she laid a perfectly nice egg, on the floor.  The next day she finally made it into a nest box and laid a perfect egg.  Today I found this on the floor and surmise it is another one of hers.  I have no idea what is going on with her.  She acts quite healthy and well. Another chicken mystery.

Normal egg and tiny egg

Here is a chicken picture.  How many of you knew that chickens love to sun bathe?  They will find a warm spot on the lawn, or slate or anywhere, and spread out their wings and take in a few rays.  I think it is very amusing.   Chickens always make me smile.  They have been keeping me company as I work in the gardens.  It is a great time of year.  Enjoy!

Rooster coming to see what's up

Rooster succumbs and joins the ladies

Olio

Waiting to be washed and blocked

I finished little Willow's sweater.  I think it is a great pattern and will have to remember it for the next baby that comes my way.  Now that I am familiar with the construction of the pattern I can fiddle with the design bits when I knit it again.  The buttons for the sweater came from a ninety nine year old woman.  She had watched me knit it with great interest and when it came time for the buttons volunteered her button box as a source for them.   I was very pleased as one never knows what can be found in old button boxes!  There were a lot of lovely things that had to be rejected as not fit for a baby.  However, knowing I wanted them to be all different,  I was able to find these which I think are just perfect.

Green growing things

The plants for the garden are coming.  It is so hard not to put them out into the greenhouse yet as the days have been feeling warm enough with some sun from time to time.  It is the reality check of 29 and 30 degree mornings that help to keep them in the warm cellar.  Just need to be patient!  It has been proven to me time and again that patience is the key to hearty plants.

All purpose cage--guinea pigs, chicks or plants!

This is the setup I have.  The problem is that I run out of room when one group starts to out pace the others in the growing department.  Eventually the things that will tolerate the dip in temperature at night will go out to the greenhouse first, giving more room for the warmer veggies, like the peppers and tomatoes. They are last out, always.  There are chains that I can hang the lights on as the plants get taller.  The closer the light source the less leggy the plants get so it would be really great if the light could get right inside the cage.  This works tolerably well.  It is just a regular shop light and the little one is the kind that go under the cabinets in the kitchen.  I try to use what we have, as you might have noticed.  Reuse and re purpose!

The awakening woods

On Tuesday I played hooky from all my obligations and spent the day with a friend.  We took a long, long walk in the woods looking for wildflowers and birds.  It was the perfect time to find blooming things.  The weather was very cold and windy, the terrain steep and treacherous.  The road was a logging road so it was full of ruts and puddles.   The best part of the walk--so cold there were no bugs!

Trillium (Wake Robin) and bellwort

Longspur violets

When we returned to her house we warmed ourselves with hot chocolate and spent the rest of the day identifying the plants.  Also we worked on our summer programs as she is the other half of "Taradiddle".  We offer stories and songs in a program geared to the Vermont Department of Libraries' summer reading theme.  It is so much fun.  Having done programs together as librarians for many, many years we found that once we were not doing it for our own library we missed it terribly.  So for the last two years we have been taking ourselves on the road.  It is so much fun.  Hopefully we will get a website up this summer.
It was a lovely day.