AH, SPRING! ~ FLOWERS ~ SEEDS & PLANTS ~ SUMMER, NOT SPRING

 AH, SPRING!

You can tell Spring has arrived when the birds all start going crazy. They tend to do things in Spring that they don't normally do any other time of year. I guess it's because they are so glad the winter is over. No, wait, that's not it. The real reason is because it's mating season! Yes, that's right, it's all about finding the perfect mate. And while the birdies are all searching for that perfect mate, Linda & I both well know that we are going to be treated to all kinds of crazy from the birds. For one thing, we know that we will be awakened to the song of the Robin...very early, like around 5am. Another indicator of Spring's arrival is the drumming of the Red-Shafted Flicker. This guy is very serious about finding a mate, so he wants to show any potential applicants what he can do. As a result of this display of his talents, here is a video of what we have heard lately several times throughout the day (sometimes at 6:30 am, like when I filmed this):

The Flicker is drumming on the fireplace roof jack and the sound travels down the flue and into our living room. I went outside this morning and caught him in the act. Thank goodness it only lasts for about 5 minutes or so!

Red-Shafted Flicker doing his thing

FLOWERS

Another indicator of Spring is all the lovely flowers that are blooming. I found our resident flamingos, Fanti and Mingo, wandering around the garden playing hide-and-seek among the tulips.

Fanti & Mingo

Here are a few more shots of some flowers in our yard.

Spring Flowers

SEEDS & PLANTS

I finally got around to planting some of my seeds last weekend into the seed starter kit that I bought. I planted one row each of Shishito peppers, Tam Jalapeno peppers, and Zavory Habanero peppers. A row consists of 6 separate plant spots, with 2 seeds in each spot. I plant 2 seeds just in case one doesn't germinate. If both seeds come up, I only keep the biggest one. I also planted 4 spots with the Savory Herb seeds. And just to see how they would do, I planted 3 seeds each of the Shishito peppers and Habanero peppers into butter containers. Here's how they look:

Starting Seeds

The lettuce seeds that I planted in the ground the week before are already coming up with little tiny lettuce plants, and the garlic plants are getting bigger!

Garlic on the left, lettuce on the right

The asparagus, alas, is not faring so well as a couple of the spears that came up have shriveled up. However, I did see a few new spears coming up. The biggest spear that came up has started sprouting flowers. Here's a picture of it below. I put my kneeler pad behind it so it would show up better.

Asparagus

SUMMER, NOT SPRING

I've gotten to the end of my blog and realized that I didn't have a picture of Summer Girl to post. Just to keep myself in her good graces, I went out and took a short video of her begging to go outside. She does love being outside now that the weather is better!

That's all for this week. Please check back again next week for more exciting adventures in the Northwest (or at least, more pictures of my plants).

ROCK UPDATE ~ CHOCOLAT CHAUD ~ BEGIN THE GARDEN ~ OUR WALK ~ SPRING FLOWERS

ROCK UPDATE

Since I posted my blog last week I have had a chance to get some of my rocks painted and placed for people to find them. I have hidden three down at the park close to our house (Kissel Park), but so far no one has posted them on the Yakima Valley Rocks Facebook page as having been "found." However, I know someone has found them because they aren't at the park anymore. I am hoping they eventually get posted so I know where they have traveled. I have some more ready to hide, but I am going to place those at a different location. Most members of the group post a picture of their rocks to the group before placing them, and they give hints as to where the rocks can be found. Lots of moms with little kids monitor our group page and then take their kids on excursions using the hints to help them find the rocks. I think this is a really fun activity to do with kids, and it gets them outside. Some of the kids have even started painting and hiding rocks themselves. Below is a picture of all the rocks I have painted right now, although a couple in the picture are not finished yet.

Some of these rocks are going to be "keepers"

CHOCOLAT CHAUD

As part of Linda's birthday celebration this year, I decided to make some real hot chocolate, also known as Chocolat Chaud or Parisian Hot Chocolate. She had mentioned that she wanted to try it some day, so I figured this would be a good time. We finally had the opportunity to do it this past week, but let me tell you, it was worth the wait. I found a  basic recipe on the Serious Eats website, another one of my favorite cooking blogs. I made some adjustments to their recipe to suit our tastes, and here is the final recipe that I made.

CHOCOLAT CHAUD
1/8 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 
1 tablespoon granulated sugar 
1/8 teaspoon salt 
1 pint whole milk or 8 oz 1% milk and 8 oz half & half 
3 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped 
2 ounces 60-70% bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 

In a small pot combine the cocoa, sugar, and salt until melted. Add the milk and both kinds of chocolate. Heat this over medium low heat, stirring often, until everything is melted well and hot, but do not bring to a boil. Use a whisk to even out any lumps in the mixture. Pour into small cups and serve.

I must say this was the best hot chocolate I have ever had! If you can't drink it all in one sitting (we couldn't), put it in a container with a lid, stick it in the fridge and reheat it whenever you want it again. I imagine it would stay good for 2-3 days.

These cute Starbucks mugs were just the right size, 3 oz.

BEGIN THE GARDEN

This past week I finally got the chance to make a start on the vegetable garden for 2017. I planted my garlic bulbs and also three different kinds of lettuce. I still have two other kinds of lettuce to plant, but I am going to wait another week so I will have a staggered crop. I was a bit disappointed to find out that what I thought was Elephant Garlic appears to be just regular garlic. I will know for sure when I harvest in late summer. At any rate, it will be better than having no garlic at all! I would include a picture but at this point it would just show dirt, LOL!

OUR WALK

For our walk this week we decided to see if I could make it all the way down to Tahoma Cemetery, which is not too far from our house. We are constantly searching for a good place to walk during the summer when it is so hot. We figured that the cemetery would be a good place because there are lots of huge trees there to provide ample shade. So, on Tuesday we walked to the cemetery, and just when we got there it began to hail little tiny balls of ice, the largest ones being about the size of a pea. I had my camera with me but the hail stones were so small you wouldn't be able to see them if I had taken a picture. Our walk got cut short due to a line of dark clouds heading our way. Still, we found out that I had no problem walking that far, in fact we would have walked around some if the weather had cooperated.

SPRING FLOWERS

Spring in Yakima is very pretty, especially after having had such a long, snowy winter. The weather here has started warming up in fits and starts, but we had one day this past week where it was warm enough to sit outside. We got our chairs off the back porch, put them under our tree, and sat outside to have our afternoon tea. The view was absolutely gorgeous!

We were joined by the Black Cat Ninja

While we were sitting under the tree we were serenaded by a little bird. Summer Girl seems to have enjoyed the concert as much as we did!

That's all for this week. Stop back by next week for more adventures in the Northwest!

YAKIMA VALLEY ROCKS ~ CRUSTY BREAD ~ ASPARAGUS

YAKIMA VALLEY ROCKS

One of the first things you think of when you retire is, "What in the world will I do with all my time?" I haven't had a problem with it so far as I have been able to keep myself busy. But now I have discovered a new hobby to take up even more of my time, and I must say I am enjoying this one very much. It gives me a way to be creative in addition to having something to do with my time. My new hobby is rock painting! This hobby goes along very well with picking up rocks on my walks, because now I also get to paint them. I got started on this hobby when I saw a post on Facebook from a group called Yakima Valley Rocks (#YakimaValleyRocks). This is a group of people who paint rocks and then hide them around town so other people can find them. The rocks have a note on the back for the finder to post a picture on Facebook. Sometimes the hider will post clues on Facebook so you know where to look. When you find a rock you can either decide to keep it, or hide it again so someone else can find it. The group encourages people to re-hide the rocks to pass the fun along. Linda found our first rock last week when she went to a Little Free Library close by our park. Below is a picture of the one she found there. I posted it on Facebook and the lady who painted it said it was her first try at painting one! I think she did a great job. Since this beach scene rock was our first find, we decided to keep it.

People also take the rocks on trips so the rocks can "travel" to far off places. One of the Yakima rocks even turned up in Hawaii today! There are lots of rock painting groups on Facebook and chances are there is one in your town, too. Just looking at all the beautiful painted rocks will guarantee that you will get bitten by the rock painting bug, like I did. Of course, as soon as Linda found her rock, off we went to Michael's craft store to get the needed supplies so I could join in the fun. Right now I have four rocks I am working on, with a coat of Mod Podge sealant drying on them before I can hide them. I am going to keep a couple of them since they are my first ones. I figure I will put some out in the garden along with the rocks we are collecting on our walks.  Here is a picture of the rocks I have done so far. The red heart-shaped "love" rock is the one I am going to hide. The little yellow one is not finished yet as I have to paint a design on it. I am so pleased with the ladybug and the yin-yang rock that I have decided to keep those two.

First batch of painted rocks

CRUSTY BREAD

I tried out a new recipe this week for crusty bread and I think this one is definitely a winner. Linda said it was her favorite, so I will be making this recipe again. The recipe is for Rosemary Garlic Skillet Bread and you can find the recipe here. Although this recipe comes from a website called "Diethood" I can assure you it is not diet food. This is another no-knead recipe, which I love because I don't have a huge mixer to do the kneading for me. The recipe is easy to make and yields a very nice loaf of bread. I used half whole wheat flour and half white flour and although it did not rise as much as I had hoped, the flavor was perfect. Check out the picture below, it will make you want a nice warm slice of homemade bread.

Rosemary Garlic No-Knead Bread

ASPARAGUS!!

Last summer I decided to try my hand at growing asparagus so I went to Lowe's and got the last six-pack of asparagus plants they had. I planted them then put a little fence around them because they were so wispy and I didn't want Summer to trample them. In the fall I was supposed to wait until the leaves turned brown, clip them off at the ground and then lay down a layer of mulch. I was going to do that, but before the leaves ever had a chance to turn brown it snowed, and the snow stayed on top of the asparagus for the next three months until just a few weeks ago. Linda went out to the garden this week to check on the plants and she found three tiny spears sticking up out of the ground! We both went out and looked again and we found a couple more. At this point that seems to be the only ones that survived, but I am totally amazed those did. Since asparagus is one of my favorite things in the world, I went to Lowe's last weekend and got some more asparagus plants. I am determined to grow my own asparagus!

The largest spear that came up this spring

New plants to plant this summer

And of course, no blog of mine would be complete without a parting shot of the little Summer Girl. You know what they say, "If you want the best seat in the house, you know you're going to have to move the cat!"

Summer hogging Linda's recliner

See you next week!

BIRD ~ NATURE WALK ~ SPRING ~ GARDEN DREAMS ~ SUMMER

BIRD

The mystery of the bird photo I posted last week has been solved. My cousin figured out that it is a Sooty Fox Sparrow. I knew it was some kind of sparrow, but wasn't sure which one. Of course, the mystery would have been solved much sooner if I had seen the sign posted at the bird blind which listed the Fox Sparrow as a regular visitor there. Linda pointed this out to me when I told her the mystery had been solved. Duh!

NATURE WALK

Our nature walk this week was on the Jewett Pathway of the Greenway. For various reasons, we have not walked along this pathway for the past couple of years. This has always been my favorite pathway to walk on because of the many large trees along the path. Or I guess I should say, because of the trees that used to be along the path. You can imagine our dismay to find that the direction of the path had been radically changed, and instead of it being among tall trees, the path is now out in the open. Most of the large trees have been cut down. To walk on this new pathway in the summer with the sun beating down is going to be sheer torture. The front part of the path is the same, so we can still walk there, but it doesn't go very far before it changes and goes out in the open. I do not know why it was changed as I could not find anything about it online when we got home. Needless to say, we were heartbroken as this was the best path to walk and watch for birds. We even used to be able to see the heron rookery from one part of the path, but not now.                  

Despite our displeasure with the current layout of the Jewett Pathway, we still walked along it quite a ways, since it was an overcast day and not hot. I continued my search for heart-shaped rocks and found a couple that were definite contenders. I also found a beautiful reddish-colored rock with lots of white lines running through it.

This week's rock collection

SPRING

Spring is finally here...I think. Although we are skeptical of saying Spring is here this early in the year, all of the signs are definitely there. The daffodils and tulips are coming up all over the place and trees and bushes are leafing out as well. Linda even had to mow the grass for the first time since last fall. Monday was so nice and warm we both got out in the yard and did some yard work, until our backs told us, "No more!" I got all of the grass pulled up from the vegetable garden area and some of the dead stalks cut back from the rear flower bed area. I figure if I do it a little at a time, I might be able to keep up with it and not have my back hurt too much.

Part of the flower bed has been cleaned up!

GARDEN DREAMS

Every year when the weather starts getting nice, my thoughts turn to which plants to grow in my vegetable garden. Last week I posted a picture of the seeds I had ordered to start indoors for transplanting later. Today, Linda and I went to the local Country Farm & Garden Center and got some California Giant Garlic bulbs, Candy Sweet onion starts, and Vino Tinto onion plants.

Upper Left Clockwise: Garlic, Candy Sweet Onions, Vino Tinto Onions

I have grown the Candy Sweet and Vino Tinto onions before and had good success with them, so I decided to do them again this year. I really wanted to get Walla Walla onion starts, but there were only two batches left and they looked pretty ragged. Although I usually grow regular garlic each year, for some reason I did not plant any last fall, so I don't have any garlic coming up for harvest this summer. This influenced my decision to get the Giant Garlic and give it a try. I know that this is not a true garlic but rather a variant of the garden leek. But I always like to try something new every year, and the Giant Garlic won that spot this year. While at the Garden Center, we went outside where all the vegetable plants are, just to look around. I was about to go crazy with all the pepper and tomato plants there, knowing that it is way too early for me to buy any yet. Since they can't go into the ground until late May, they will just have to stay at the Garden Center for now. Plus, I plan to go to the Master Gardeners' Plant Sale in May before I buy my plants, so what I don't get there at the sale, I will get from the Garden Center.

SUMMER

My blog would not be complete without a parting shot of Summer Girl. Here she is in her favorite summer resting spot...the vegetable garden. Right now it is just a plot of dirt with straw on top of it. But in about three months, it will be full of green plants bearing all kinds of fresh vegetables. I think it is my favorite spot, too. That's all for now, I hope to see you back here next week!

Summer Girl in the garden