All Things Spring

Spring’s here!  I want to scream it from the rafters!  It’s like the whole world’s awake!  In Connecticut, we can actually store away the snow shovels, bring out our sandals, and pull out the yard furniture!  The season’s off to a busy and good start!

After a long winter, you really appreciate warmer days!  No more calls from Southern relatives to say, “Oh, it’s forty there?  Too bad, we have eighty-five and are drinking ice tea in the shade.”  (At least here in winter, Santa Claus doesn’t seem the least bit overdressed).   The last two weeks, we’ve had the grass turn green (as opposed to dead brown), the daffodils bloom, and the forsythia, our harbinger of Spring, pop out with flowers of canary yellow (the same color as the Queen’s Royal Wedding outfit).  Speaking of wedding, did you watch it?  Didn’t it seem to kick the world off to the start of a happier season?

This Forsythia bush is half-way to the end of its Spring blooms.  Soon it will shed all of its yellow flowers and be a solid green bush until next fall.

This week, our trees budded and birds, bees, wild turkeys, and butterflies can be seen again.  I was surprised a few days ago when I was setting the table and glanced up to hummingbird hovering right outside!  It was the Scout looking for the feeder!  It’s the earliest I’ve ever seen them.  I hung up the feeder, and we’ve been delighting in seeing our little friends fill up on their favorite treat.  I find the best hummingbird food is homemade (isn’t everything)?  Homemade is economical, too.  Simply dissolve one cup of sugar into two cups of boiling water, and let cool before filling a clean feeder.  Don’t dye the water red, and never use honey or artificial sweeteners, which could kill the birds.  If ants are a problem, invert a plastic coffee can lid with a hole poked through it, and hang on the same string as your feeder, above the feeder itself.  Coat the lid with vegetable oil, and the ants will stick to it before they can make their way down to your feeder.  Now, I don’t know how to keep woodpeckers out of the hummingbird feeder!  Last year, I had a crazy woodpecker slurp all the sugar water right out of my feeder every chance he could get.  It made the hummingbirds mad, and they’d buzz overhead when I was gardening, as if to tattle on the feathered hog!  Wonder if he’ll be back this year?

Can you see the little hummingbird in mid-flight?  We love to eat our meals in the kitchen while watching the birds get a meal, too.

Here’s a shot of the crazy woodpecker who kept draining the sugar water from the hummer feeder all last year!

The hosta bed’s sprouting, too, and I’ve been spraying them with rotten egg water to ward off deer.  My yard becomes a  “buffet” for the “rats with antlers”.  Our suburban town’s overrun by deer, and they seem to have no fear of people.  One day I was walking on the treadmill when I felt that eerie feeling of being watched.  Just on the other side of the window was a deer, munching my bushes and looking in at me.  Dinner and a show!  I’ve chased them out of the bird feeder as they dumped all my seed, cursed them when I find my hostas eaten to nubs, and wanted to cry when they trampled my flowers.  However, a sight I saw in the front yard has softened me a bit.  It was a mother deer with two little spotted babies, nursing… the sweetest sight!  The “twins” began playing with each other, kicking their heels up and frolicking in the grass.  Then, I saw Mama deer walk over to one, lovingly kiss the top of her baby’s head, and sweetly groom its ear.  I felt a kindred spirit to that deer…even mama deer are proud of their babies!

I love my hostas…but so do the deer!  Here one of my variegated varieties is newly bloomed.

Aha! Caught you…red-hoofed!

Speaking of mothers, Spring brings Mother’s Day, and I just had ten days with my mom, as she visited for Easter.  It’s the longest we’d gone without seeing each other, and nothing makes you appreciate your mom as much as a long absence!  For Easter dinner dessert, I made my new favorite recipe, Farmgirl Saturday Cake, found in the April issue of “The Cluck’, as well as MaryJane’s book, which you can pick up here:  http://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/store/p/99-MaryJane-s-Farmgirl-Wisdom.aspx

Three generations for Easter dinner.

To end the week, I hosted my Sisterhood Chapter for Spring Brunch.  Nothing says Spring like Brunch!  Ali made moist, delicious Cream Cheese Carrot Cake muffins.  (Find the recipe at http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cream-cheese-carrot-cake-muffins-recipe).  We also had mimosas, tea sandwiches, apple crisp, cranberry scones, flan, and three kinds of quiche!  Here’s my favorite quiche. You can change it however you like, but I usually add cooked, drained broccoli:

Some of the happy faces of my Sisterhood Chapter

Jackie shared a new book she’s reading, How to Sew a Button and Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew  by Erin Bried.  I’ll be picking one up myself, as it’s a fun read full of anecdotes as well as practical “farmgirl-type” tips. Catching up, we all laughed, trading recipes and gardening tips.  My favorite’s from Dina, who’s decided to simply pull out all the flowers from her beds in order to avoid the deer!  A bit extreme… but it would work!  We all brought lapwork, but didn’t pull it out…we were having too much fun just being together!

So farmgirl friends, I wish you well with Spring chores, and wish all a Happy Mother’s Day!  (Don’t forget to make time for yourself)!

-Nicole