Brain Games & Colder Days

Hello, friends.  Last week, I redeemed Swagbucks points for $25 via Paypal.  Another round of alfalfa sprouts were started.  I harvested kale and parsley for pesto, cilantro for a smoothie, and mint for water.  The pesto was new to us, a MM recipe, which we both liked.  I served it with our favorite GF pasta, rather than veggies.  Two banana peels were chopped, and dug under a rose bush.  Of course, I did find McNibs pawing at it later that day, but after telling him to leave it alone, it appears he has, thank goodness.  The first peas were picked, but only two, three or four pods at a time.  Some were added to a salad, and others to veggie scrambles.  I noticed the deer had nibbled the tops off of several of the pea plants.  Oh, the challenges of gardening.  I'm enjoying The Forest of Vanishing Stars from the library.

 

Joseph and I, and friends who share the same anniversary, had a quick little getaway.   We went to Elkin to see a concert, had a nice dinner, and spent the night at a very reasonable and quite nice motel J found.  On the way home, we stopped by Ollie's.  We didn't find any food we wanted, but made a few small business purchases.  For a veggie scramble, I used our asparagus, opened a frozen bag of lamb's quarter, and finished a frozen bag of sweet peppers.  I've begun spring cleaning my studio.  Some things were set aside to give to our GD, and a box of things will be donated.  Winter and summer clothes were swapped out.  While the dresser drawers were empty, I was reminded of these vintage images on the drawer bottoms.  They remind me of the newspaper clippings shared by gDonna.  

I was happy to find out that the northern sea oats recently purchased are a host plant to several of the skipper butterflies.  They're the only plants from the plant sale that haven't been planted.  I'm leaning towards putting them on the slope in front of the solar panels, but that area is still being cleaned up.  As far as the other plantings last week, there was lettuce, parsley, cilantro, mullein, and black hollyhocks.  I also transplanted volunteer sunflowers.  I've been enjoying playing Wordle every morning, and a couple of weeks ago, I started playing the spelling bee that comes up with my Wordle score, and enjoy that even more. The goal is to make as many words as you can from 7 letters.  The only challenge is I'm playing the free version, and it cuts me off at random times, at which time I either have to subscribe or come back the next day.  It's still fun, though, and both are good brain games.   

wintersown red veined sorrel that needs planting

With temps in the low 40's on two nights, J lit a fire in the woodstove the morning after the second night.  I took advantage of it, and started a pot of broth with veggie scraps, as there were already 2 1/2 gallon bags of scraps since the last recent round of broth making.  We had two storms that came through last week, both with strong winds, and one with pea-sized hail.  Lots of limbs and sticks came down, and a few plants were blown over or broken, but the garden thankfully wasn't affected.  Sweet potatoes were baked on one of the cold nights, and on a warmer day, I made fried sweet potatoes.  I usually aim to have our sweet potatoes baked and eaten before hot weather, but the fried ones are so quick and easy to make, it will be a great way to use them up in the coming weeks.  I weeded the new asparagus bed, and harvested lettuce and nettles twice.  The first nettles picking was chopped, and a batch of glycerite started.  The next batch was dehydrated.  I cut the last of the butternut squash in storage, kept one bag out for a squash crumble, and froze the rest.  I hope you Mamas of children, animals, and any other type had a lovely Mother's Day.