Slow progress

I was home with a sick kiddo a couple of days last week. There was a lot of chicken soup and children’s TV and laundry and Tylenol…

And a fair amount of knitting! This is my stripy cardi, which I started last August. I made good progress for a month or so, then got distracted.

But now I’ve almost finished the body! I’m through the stockinette and the contrast stripe now. I just need to knit the hood, sleeves, and edging.

In my head I’m calling this my spring sweater. Will it be done for spring? I’m uncertain. But I also still have 12″ of snow in my backyard, so it’s not impossible!

More plants!

This space is still nominally a knitting blog. And I actually have some to show you. But I keep forgetting to take pictures. Why? Because it is spring! And spring is much more exciting than an olive green sweater that still isn’t finished.

I may be unreasonably excited about that big black cube. But it is going to turn my compost heap into a compost factory. And that’s exciting, in my world.

The peas, beets, radishes, and lettuce seedlings are up.

No parsnips though. Actually, that’s not true. There are 3 parsnips in the bed where I planted them last year.

I know the seeds need to be planted early, maybe I’m missing that window? Maybe I should plant parsnips in the fall and let them overwinter as seeds?

While weeding the bed that will hold broccoli and brussel sprouts (it’s next to the fence, the neighbors’ grass always tries to move in) I found strawberry seedlings! So now I have a strawberry basket. We’ll see if I can remember to water it all summer…

And I highly suggest artisanal ice cubes for your next project.

Violets and mint are both edible. I will have the prettiest lemonade this summer!

Signs of Spring

It’s been a very cold April. Fourth coldest on record in some parts of Vermont. But in the last two weekends we’ve finally had some sunshine. There’s been family time in the garden:

I’ve planted radishes (rainbow radishes, Windsor will always add), peas, parsnips, beets, and lettuce. Plus volunteer garlic, as you can see from the photo. I’m also doing a garden bed of annual flowers from seed, and some of those go in before the last frost too.

I also have a resident in the rhodedendron this year. Can you spot her?

According to the Internet it takes 11 to 13 days for cardinal eggs to hatch.

Late spring

Foggy spiderwebs are the best

No, really.

Although cute warblers are good too

And you can never have too many wildflowers, right?

Right.

These are coltsfoot, not dandelions. I see them most often along roadsides as soon as the snows are melted. They’re usually home by May but I found some still in bloom at the top of smugglers notch!

Spring weekend

A family weekend in photos

Visiting montpelier

Hiking and scrambling

Planting wildflowers

Building our new fire pit!

Ramp season

If you’ve never heard of them – well I’m not surprised. They’re a member of the allium family (along with garlic and onions) but ramps (or ramsons) grow wild throughout much of eastern north america.

I’ve actually never foraged for ramps before this year. And I was starting to think that’s a good thing. Ramps have been in the news ’round these parts for some pretty serious over-harvesting. But we went out for an early season hike, and along with all those wildflowers I posted about, we found these guys:

And lots more where they came from. I’ve heard you shouldn’t harvest more than a third of any wild thing when you’re foraging. We harvested less than a tenth of the ramps growing on the hillside we found.

What we brought home was just the right amount for us. I’ve got two jars of refrigerator pickles steeping at the back of my fridge:

And we made a ginger beef stir fry with the remaining ramps and all the leaves. The first green harvest of the season:

Of course this was two weeks ago. The dandelions are blooming now, so they’re up next! And just in case you’d forgotten, my book (Cast Iron, Cast On) has two recipes for edible dandelions!

Spring flowers

After a cold and snowless winter spring in Vermont seems to be taking its sweet time to arrive. Trees still haven’t started leafing out and the grass is only just turning from brown to green. But the ephemeral flowers didn’t get the message, so at least there are a few signs of hope!

Bloodroot – grows in moist woods and thickets – including the edge of my yard.

Trout Lily – with mottled leaves that are supposed to look like brook trout.

Both of these grow just one seed per plant and that seed is carried away and eaten by ants! Talk about slow reproduction…

Red Trillium – the reds always bloom first, the white and fancy will come later in spring.

I honestly don’t know! It’s too early for strawberries and the leaves are wrong. The leaves are wrong for bloodroot too. Anybody want to guess what these little guys are??

Maple Open House

Maple Open House weekend. A chance to drive all over Vermont, visit neighborhood sugar houses, and drink large quantities of maple syrup. Well, that was past years. Windsor doesn’t love her car seat, so more recently we’ve gone to just a couple of them. That was just as well since half the sugar makers weren’t even open. The maple season is wacky. (I mentioned that recently, didn’t I?)

Saturday, at least, was seasonably cold, sunny, and generally perfect for maple weekend!

Also perfect for making friends with the donkey

And the pretty draft horses.

And I had a chance to take some scenic photos

and some close ups

Saturday was the right day to get outside, because Sunday was cold, rainy, and then snowy. We stayed inside, made soup, and had a lovely quiet weekend.

The state of things

Spring is slowly creeping into Vermont (we had snow again this week, and there’s more in the forecast) and I realized yesterday that the only seeds I’ve started are the mixed handful that Windsor and I threw into a pot of soil two weeks ago. My garden plans are sorely limited compared to some previous years.

It’s not just living with a toddler, have I told you my current schedule? I used to work 8 hour days, and take lunch breaks online. Since maternity leave ended I’ve been working 9 hour days and taking lunch breaks with Windsor. The combination means a lot less time for everything. I miss reading other blogs, I miss digging in the garden after work, I miss many things. There’s plenty I don’t miss (I don’t really care about the dishes, or the sweeping) but all life is a balancing act. And right now I feel like by blog is as neglected as my garden.

Do you feel like our blog conversation is covered in weeds? I apologize! I hope you’ll stick around, because I hope to be back soon. This summer holds some big changes for the Herrick family. Neil will soon be done with grad school. We’re looking forward to him having a regular schedule, which will let my schedule level out – finally. I have some new designs that should be out this year, and someday I’ll even get some garden and chicken pictures for you!

early spring

Spring is here, the early version of it anyway. The last of the snow lies in dirty piles, hiding in the shadows.

The chickens are so happy to be outside again! My breakfast eggs have turned from sunny winter yellow to vibrantly orange. Which is a delicious sign of spring.

And finally, the morning sunrise has almost caught up with my alarm clock (again). It had just barely caught up when daylight savings time pushed it back. So I’m relieved to have it back again. What signs of spring are popping up where you live?