Mini crocuses on March 15th. Actually sooner but my camera was not at hand.
Spitzhauben chickens enjoying the sun and finding yummies where the snow is gone
Spring snow today, beautiful in its ephemeral way!
Visiting Dad and Mary Anne, it was lovely and spring-y. Warm with so many flowering trees and shrubs. But so different from here in the east where the flowers are meted out in doses, Seattle has a veritable cacophany of colored shrubbery. Delightful. This is only the view out Dad’s kitchen window into his yard and beyond.
We went to a farmer’s market in Ballard, rich with sights and sounds, on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon. Dad had delicious thin crusted pizza. I bought fruits for a compote.
On my last day there we went to the Henry Gallery, part of the U of W. We saw exhibits that ultimately left us drained and exhausted, but not in a good way. There were few highlights but here are a couple. Kiki Smith, a sculptor, was exhibiting photography which showed much more of her dark process, maybe views, than I really wanted any part of.
Here’s Dad taking a little breather and watching some youth moving through the lobby.
Then in another gallery a selection from the museum’s permanent collection. There were a couple of items worth photos, but this poster struck me. A commentary on native americans’ mixture of historic and current culture. The apple reference is to people who are red on the outside and white on the inside.
I like the contrast of elements: ink drawing of dogwood, traditional art in upper right, brushy ink figure, graphic poster.
The chickens tell me the days are getting longer. Slowly their production is inching up from the dark tunnel of no eggs. This year they went from a fall moult directly into the darkest month and then a cold spell. Who would want to give birth to an egg every day under those circumstances? So now as the angle of the sun rises a little and it’s no longer dark at 5:00pm, we get four or five eggs a day instead of one or two. I celebrated this morning with belgian waffles using two large eggs and three bantam eggs (small). The waffles were moist and light - yum!
I, too, am feeling a little more elastic. I can feel my sap beginning to rise to the call of spring. In my woodsy walks with the dogs I see some buds considering the idea of swelling: blueberries and swamp azalea. At home I want to plan changes to the garden, sort my seeds and order some, strategize on where to start seeds indoors as my sunny windows are full of geraniums.
Today there are all sorts of buzzings in the thyme. Honey bees have shown up for the big mats of thyme flowers and for several days I’ve seen them on the plantain flowers in the front lawn. What a lovely thing to have diverse plants flowering to attact the lovely apis.
I picked flowers today and macerated them in alcohol to make a tincture. This is new territory for me, although I made two tinctures last year (burdock seed and elderberry). I loved walking among the flowers and looking for the ones that were freshest today. They were vibrant albeit simple and the sensation of gathering their energy into an extract was powerful in a quiet way. I had a sense also of service shared and of reverence.
I had a handful and a half of new green beans and wanted to combine them with something: the refrigerator offered burdock root, celery, bacon fat, cilantro pesto and anchovy paste. I was pleased that this seemingly esoteric mix of ingredients did not swear, but made a harmonious little stir fry.
I didn’t eat this day lily - but it’s good enough to eat! Spicy and hot. I think it hasn’t bloomed as early other years. I’ve always had it mentally filed under “later than others and closing the daylily season”. It’ll be interesting to see what it does this year.