The days are getting longer, the hills are greener and my garden tools are getting anxious to get growing! I was told that once there is no longer any snow on the Ochre Mountains (that is the name of the range to the West of SLC) then you can begin to plant your garden without fear of frost. We might have one more snow day ahead of us but man it feels and looks like spring around here! Taking inventory of the yard I found a giant Mullein plant which is a desert thriving, drought loving easy to care for garden treat, it will likely bloom next year which will be cool since it shoots up a stalk that can reach a height of 10 feet!
My chard seedlings are coming along…
I planted a few pansies and they have held strong through three snowfalls yet again proving they are tougher than their namesake…
a few more tulips are popping up late to the scene…
I planted some calla lilies along the driveway strip that we cleared out last summer, I am still working on that area so no pictures yet but I will be looking forward to my sorbet assortment of callas to pop up in the late spring/early summer. Jason and I had some friends over for a bbq yesterday after yard work and a long bike ride. I was in the mood for pie so I tried out Jason’s Great Grandmother Atwood’s no fail crust recipe (thank you Kathy for the recipe cards in my Christmas stocking!) it turned out great! I was really hoping for peach pie but those aren’t in season yet so I went for apple instead…
I have been having pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it kept me going on my long and ridiculously busy 12+ hour shift today. I am hoping that I will have time to work on the Nook painting project Thursday so long as I am not totally exhausted after working for three days in a row, ugg. Anyway, I know I shouldn’t complain, so I have been chanting to myself in the morning when I wake up for work “I love my job, I love having a job, I am good at what I do” and this makes me feel better at least for a little while :) I have been looking into internships to advance my nursing career and of course the NP program at University of Portland is on my tentative plans for when we move back to Oregon. time to go have some pie, happy spring everyone!
This picture was taken a few weeks ago of the same spot…
We have a bunch of green tomatoes right now, some of them are quite big, I keep going out in the morning hoping to see some color changes…
Jason picked up a tiny tomatillo plant a few days after we planted the garden and we squeezed it in between some of the tomatoes in the bed against the house, it is doing quite well, same height as its neighboring tomato relatives and it has little tomatillo lanterns all over the place…
Oh yes there are a lot of herbs indeed and see those lawn chaises in the background?! Our landlords (we shall call them the Preacher’s for privacy sake) gave us those for free! They are about 50 years old I think but they have been kept in storage and they are in perfect condition they need new cushions though because the ones that they came with are sort of covered in mildew but for now I think throwing a towel over them will do just great. I need to work on getting the patio area set-up. The Preacher’s are funny landlords, sort of nosy at times but I think they actually really like us. Last Saturday they were over in the morning measuring the garden beds so that they could buy us some soaker hoses, this was very nice of them but since I was not expecting anyone to be over that early I had the side door open and was still in my pajamas. When I heard someone call my name I thought it was Jason trying to be funny and talking with an old lady voice but it was just Patty Preacher wanting me to go outside and help them hold the measuring tape. Luckily we have not had to water too much since we had a huge downpour on Sunday which resulted in this…
Later that evening it turned into this…
Jason took a much better picture of the event which you can see on his blog
Sad, is it not? Anyway, that is what is going on here guess I should get moving before it heats up.
And here is a picture of me looking quite pathetic and only half way done with our ride but happy to be on pavement and not teetering on some rocks and a cliff, some how Jason always seems to capture the best of me…
As you can see my phone with a cord is conveniently located near the nook so that I can sit and talk comfortably inside my cozy little space. Last night I was lying down on one of the nook benches and decided to look at the underside of the table, I am not sure what I was expecting to find maybe some old paint chips I don’t know, but what I found was the handwriting of a young girl proclaiming her love for different boys, luckily she dated each entry so it was interesting to see her go back and forth between who she was “in love” with at the time, here are a few quotes from the underside of the nook:
