Picture time

Well, if April showers bring May flowers, I guess May flowers bring...anxious farmers.  It's been a wet week and the next one isn't looking much drier.  Turns out this is actually just what spring is all about and later in the hot summer, we'll be happy that we had this rain, but right now Mark is pacing, 'puttering' at wet weather jobs.  On the good side, it means lots of the jobs on my list are getting done. My garden is prepped, the sandbox is getting revamped, the pasture is at the top of this week's list, etc.  We may even go on a date this week if the rain keeps up! 

So, to distract all you soggy Maritimers from the grey skies, I got out with the camera today and took some spring-like shots for the blog.  Even with no sun, the azaleas never fail to be the first big sign of colour for the season.  We were lucky to have two big beautiful bushes already well established when we bought this house.  I take a picture of the kids in front of it every spring. You'll see this year's first attempt.  It's missing Thayne and it's a pretty wet looking picture, but I wanted to get Wilson's outfit on record.  We had just had ice cream and it was all over his face and for some reason he was insisting on wearing that hilarious winter balaclava which reminded us of the chain mail that knights wore under their armour.  We called him Sir Licks-A-Lot. 

Here's the kid's section of the garden where I left some parsnips from last year (boy, those carrots grew fast! You guys must have taken GREAT care of those!) and we threw some spinach seeds in, which have miraculously sprouted up out of the ground, but it's looking a bit soggy tonight.

  



 The garlic is looking good and I'm excited for my first crop this fall!  We go through a lot of garlic here, so we'll see how my test plot of 12 plants goes this year.  As I was taking this picture I noticed the kids lapping up some rain water from the lawn chair in the background.  Hard up for moisture I guess.

My mother's day present to myself was an ice cream maker.  Ever since we got the cow I've wanted one, so here's my sous-chefs keeping a close eye on the first batch.  It was marginally successful, but I don't think it was the machine's fault.  I have another bottle of cream saved up so we'll try again tomorrow.  Any tips from ice cream connoisseurs out there? 

 

Hope this finds you keeping an eye on the Manitoba and Mississippi floodings and keeping things in perspective. 

-Sally