It feels like a season of extremes here in the east. Warm summer-like days arriving back-to back-with the cold and wet. Flip flops one day, rubber boots, the next. I'm delighted to have strawberries so early this year, and to have such a bountiful crop of berries for jam and freezing. Strawberry pie, here we come!

(I'm not posting a recipe for this pie because although good, it wasn't the best I've ever tried. If you have a GREAT strawberry pie recipe, e-mail me! Maybe we can share.)
There is no better morning than one spent tidying the garden, keeping the edges clean from encroaching weeds, hoeing around the large green heads of lettuce. Yes, keeping things tidy can be fulfilling. Now only if they would stay that way. The farm fields to our east and north are filled with a few
cole crops and an abundance of herbs. You can smell the cilantro in the air when they are harvesting it. My cousin the herbalist (mentioned in a previous post) says we are getting healing just from smelling them all around us.
Hmmm...let me take a deep breath.
Somehow, I managed to actually take advantage of the weather by planting string beans right before a big rain. That saved me from having to put in the rest of the irrigation right away. But with corn going in next, I'll be setting up hoses this weekend for certain.
Each year I try to make room to grow something new. To make the room, I grow a large quantity of something that we use often one year, preserve it, and then scale back the following year and use the space for something new. For instance, this year will (hopefully) be a better tomato year so I won't need to grow as many next year. Then, that space can go to something new. This year, the string beans are new, as are the raspberries.

This will also the the first year at our house that we will have cabbage, as the one other time we tried it, it became a battle of man versus cabbage worm. It is a complete surprise that we are growing healthy cabbage this year.
The bird houses in our yard are operating at full occupancy rate. It's always such a delight to walk by one and unexpectedly hear the tiny "cheep cheeps" of new life inside. It's so precious that I've tried to get video of it on my camera, but all beaks are silent when the camera is near.
no vacancyOn the
homefront, I plan to make strawberry jam soon, start shopping for
bathroom vanities (our bathroom has always been one of the more finished rooms in our house), and attend a birthday party for a special little girl who is turning one. What do you buy a one year old? Well, anything that makes noise or does something once you push a button. Come to think of it, that sounds like things the Mister likes, too!
I'll be back next time with a recipe, and a review of something new and interesting that I came across. I'll just give you a hint-
think salads.
lettuce, cabbage, and more lettuce