April 10, 2022- almost a perfect day

 

Welcome back, Spring. 

Yesterday, after a cool and not so sunny week, we had almost a perfect day. It was sunny and there was no wind. (I think that was a big part of the glory.) It had been cold overnight, which showed as there was ice on the pond. he temperatures topped out at about 55, which was just about right. 

I had mostly finished my legal work during the work week. I had one of those weeks where hearings on Monday and Friday sort of sandwiched the work week. But the important thing was that I really did not have to spend time at the office over the weekend.

I was out in the garden by 7:30. I paced myself, not raking more than 2-3 barrels full of leaves and winter debris at any one stretch. (I still was on my feet in the garden for 6-7 hours. By the end of the day I was tired.) 

Actually I had started gardening about an hour earlier as I repotted some lovely coleus seedlings into bigger pots. 

When I am actually in the garden I try to rotate tasks. In between raking I was potting things up. I pot up bluebells that are no more than 2 inches out of the ground. At that stage they will do fine in pots. Bluebells are bulbs like carrots. 

The crocuses had spent several days being closed up, looking a little like light bulbs.

It took them a few hours of sun yesterday to fully open and put on quite a show.

Enjoy this slideshow with a little music from my younger days.

While I am showing videos here is the backyard, yesterday.

I did bring out on of the big white chairs for the back driveway. Sitting down did get a place on the garden rotation.

One task from yesterday was to go around and find all the lupine plants. Each would get a colored straw. I then weeded a little circle around each plant and gave them some fertilizer. In the next few days I will plant some of the lupine seedlings in several locations where I would like an entire bed of lupines. Here were some of the clumps I prepped today.

This next patch was the biggest, over north of the pond.

This next picture is of a second year tree peony. I had 7-8 seedlings last year. (grown from my own seeds.) Almost all have made it through the winter. It will be another 3-4 years before they are big enough to bloom. Last fall I planted maybe 100 seeds. I even got some seeds from a neighbor down the street, who had different colored peonies. I am waiting to see how many brand new ones will show up in the next 60 days. 

By the way I marked the seedlings also with colored straws. 

The garden is entering its blue phase. I suppose you could have said that for the first month of the new season it was in a yellow phase, what with aconite everywhere.

First the little scilla siberica have shown up, by the thousands. I know them by the name 'squill.'

The little scilla seeds survive the year on top of the ground. They then have made new plants for the last month. Some people have the nerve to suggest that they are 'invasive.' I do not know about that. They certainly spread. But they make a lovely blue carpet or at least a blue haze for a few weeks. They they disappear. How can that be a bad thing?

In this picture you can see these blue flowers that have just started. They really are quite distinct from the regular scilla or squill. 

But they are also scilla.

The upfacing little blue plants are scilla luciliae, or Glory of the snow, or chinodoxa. Scilla is the genus.

S. luciliae is the species. It is not only listed as being from Turkey, but from western Turkey. I have quite a bit of this scilla too. There is also pink chinodoxa, even though it does not have as big a crop.

Apparently chinodoxa used to be in its own genus. It has now been moved to the scilla group.

I have my mother's garden encyclopedia which at this point it probably 75 years old. Sometime I should get that out and see what they said about some of these plants.

After the scilla of both kinds fade, the Virginia bluebells with take over. I do think they will be blooming when Katie and family come for a visit in two weeks. 

The first daffodil should bloom today. Here was the picture from yesterday.

Crocuses and hellebores are a good combination.

Here is a closeup of the yellow hellebore.

An old reliable spring friend.

Julia's recipe

French Toast Bits

 And now for something for breakfast or for breakfast for supper, which we have at our house from time to time. One might think of this as fun-sized French toast, as in fun-sized candy bars. I found it easier to make than full-sized French toast, easier to keep warm during the cooking process and tasty too. I got the idea from a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I have taken the magazine for years, and yet I always think of the political activist Flo Kennedy who was sniffy about women's magazine that told you how to make artichokes into aprons and aprons into artichokes. But the fun-sized French toast is good. 

The ingredients:

4 eggs;

1 cup milk (I use whole, don't use skim);

1/2 - 2/3 cup white sugar;

2 - 3 teaspoons cinnamon;

some butter; and

4 cups or more, if needed, sturdy, crusty white bread.

I started by cutting the bread into roughly 2" x 2" x1/2" cubes, with the 1/2" being the thickness. I was not precise: some pieces were a bit thicker, some had curvy sides. Crust pieces are just fine.

I had already mixed the sugar and cinnamon in the soup plate shown.

I had the oven on at 200 degrees.

Next I mixed the 4 eggs and the milk in a sort of deep baking dish with a whisk.

I took out a non-stick skillet (non-stick is a very good idea for this recipe) and melted about 1-1/2 teaspoon of butter in the skillet over medium - medium high heat.  

I soaked some of the bread cubes (maybe 9 or 10) in the egg-milk mixture and flipped them over to get eggy on both sides. 

Then I plopped them into the skillet, sort of keeping track of the order in which I put them in the pan so I could flip them over in some sort of order of doneness. 

I toggled the heat between medium and medium-high so the bread would cook but not scorch.

I flipped the bread cubes over after a minute or two when they had started to brown and did that for maybe 3 or 4 minutes altogether. 

When the bread cubes were golden brown, I fished them out of the skillet and into the cinnamon sugar, rolling them around gently to get coated to some extent. 

Then I put the finished toasts into a 9" x 13" pyrex baking pan and put them in the oven to keep warm. 

I continued to soak and cook, adding maybe 1 teaspoon of butter with each batch of bread cubes. I ended up cutting some more bread (the tail end of a boule) to soak up all of the egg and milk mixture. 

As I finished each skillet-ful, I rolled the cubes in cinnamon-sugar and added them to the baking dish in the oven. 

And here is the final product. The cubes stayed warm in the oven. No syrup or butter was required. They were sort of a cross between French toast and doughnuts. We served them with bacon and berries and yogurt. There were a few left over which Philip ate cold (!) the next day, saying they like doughnuts, only better. Praise indeed. 

Odds and Ends

It is a busy time of year for a gardener, much less a gardener with a full time day job.

Outside tasks have taken over the to do list. 

I should create a must not forget list.

On that list would be watering the inside plants. On the sub list (if that is a thing) would be watering plants that are hanging from the various ceiling hooks. That includes a number of hoyas and a few orchid cactus.

I have never quite figured out how to water handing plants inside. The problem is that they drip. So do you hold something under them until they stop dripping. Only a few are placed so that they would conveniently drip into a nicely placed bucket or another plant.

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Katie and family are coming to visit for a week, in two weeks. I currently get to play the game of wondering what will be blooming then.

The double bloodroot will be ready, if they are not finished by then.

The little bearded iris should have started. I must say there is nothing resembling a bud at the moment.

In the world of spring bulbs the English bluebells, and perhaps even the Virginia bluebells should be ready then. 

Maybe the hardy orchids will bloom. They have emerged but are just out of the ground at this point.

I am saving certain garden tasks for her arrival. I have started some pond cleanup, but the final cleaning should wait for her. Along with the fish acquisition. 

I would expect spring flowering trees would be blooming in two weeks. It is April 9 and nothing so far. That is beginning to seem late. 

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I sold the first plants in the backyard plant sale for the local food banks. Now I am beginning to pot things up and even put price tags on them. I do so like this non organized venture, now entering its third year. Part of it is getting to talk garden with people. I remember that Christopher liked giving directions to people. Garden knowledge from people so short is always positive virtue.

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I wonder about gardening in the Ukraine.  I can imagine people wanting to find something to hold on to.

Normal must now be so strange. 

I suppose there have been gardens during all wars. 

I wonder if anyone has ever written about this. Since someone has written about everything it must be out there. 

Find a pretty flower and pray for peace.

Philip