The past two weeks has seen a lot of growth here, in all sorts of ways! The garden, trees, and field have all made big strides and one of us had a 52nd birthday. As far as the blooms, we are at least a few weeks behind from previous years- I contribute that to the deep cold that we had for an extended period of time. In fact, it has been a cool spring (though this weekend will shatter that since we are going above 80 degrees). What has been notable the past few weeks, and indeed all winter and spring, has been the wind. We’ve had so much wind and it’s wrecked havoc, especially in the Woodland where the dead ash are falling like dominos and taking out perfectly healthy trees.

In the Garden

We’ve made some progress in the garden this week in that I’ve sown peas, carrots, radishes, spinach, and beets. I planted out the Swiss chard, lettuces and cabbages that I started in seed blocks. I hope they make it because in all honesty, they were looking a bit peaky and sad. Additionally, I planted out my sweet peas and even harvested the first beautiful spears of asparagus!

In Bloom

The daffodils have gotten started and are still going strong. I’ve brought loads of them in and have enjoyed them scattered around the house. Daffodils can be tricky to arrange with because of the toxic sap that drains out of their cut stem. The sap will limit the vase life of other flowers in an arrangement, so one must cut them and let them sit for 3-4 hours before mixing them with other flowers in an arrangement. And then you can’t recut them! Therefore, I often just put them in a straight arrangement of only daffodils as it makes it infinitely easier (though I didn’t do that for the arrangement below).

The hellebores are also stars this time of year, but the flower I’m absolutely obsessed with is the snake’s head fritillary. I paired it with some cut branches of a cherry tree and was mesmerized every time I studied it!

In the Orchard

The orchard has turned into one of my favorite spring spots on the farm (now if only we could get the apple trees to produce!). Last fall, I planted some perennial tulips (supposedly) around the base of the apple trees. I had read that this particular variety matched the color of the apple blossoms and I’m completely smitten with how pretty they look!

In the Woodland

Sadly, the ticks have arrived and that always dims the excitement about our wood walks with Rosie. We’ve developed a system to do tick checks and such but still it’s a worry. I’ve been spotting skunk cabbage and just this week I found that the Trout Lily is flowering! I’m always happy to see this native because slowly but surely our entire forest floor is being taken over by the invasive Lesser Celandine.

In the Kitchen

Finally, I baked a cake for Bryce for his birthday. This man loves bourbon so I made a bourbon butterscotch cake that was rather tasty and fun!