orange you glad...?

A few cuddles is just what this week has called for!

We took a walk, and it was nice to see the woods waking up after the long winter.

Some wildflowers are already up!  This is Cutleaf Toothwart, informally known as Crow's Toes.  It's an edible plant once known as 'pepper plant' due to its spicy taste. 

At home, daffodils are coming up everywhere.  I didn't get a chance to plant any bulbs last year, and I'm already thinking muscari, tulips, snow-in-summer, crocus for next year.  But the daffodils are nice!

Of course, I'm bringing them inside...especially the tiny ones!

I hate that I can't go to the local greenhouses for flowers this spring, but at least the grocery store had a few violas and pansies.  I potted some up on the front porch.

Last year, I planted several spring-blooming flowers - lilacs, lily of the valley, two hydrangeas, three peonies, and at least 25 columbines.  No blooms yet, but the established lilac bush on the property is leafing out nicely!

The horse farm that's catty-corner to our house has opened the fields up, and they're dotted with horses again.  Such a pleasant view!

A less-pleasant visitor to our front porch:  the dead vole.  Claudia is such a good hunter and brings us a "special treat" almost daily!

Did you notice the teeth?

Like a beaver, vole teeth are orange because of all of the gnawing they have to do.  That orange (iron!) enamel is much stronger than our white enamel, and tends to sharpen with use - perfect for their daily tasks.  Voles have made a ridiculous amount of tunnels in our yard, so Claudia is doing a great service!

When she's not working...

I guess cats have basically perfected the art of relaxation.

Bosewichte is a great help around the house once he's up from his nap...sort of!  You'd think that the growing pile of fabric in front of him would be an annoyance, but he's blissfully unaware.

This is a project that I'm dying to work on...the confetti quilt.

Unfortunately, I'm having terrible trouble with my right shoulder, an old sports injury that has been bothering me for 3+  years.  My body has compensated by utilizing the incorrect muscles for certain movements, which means that any cutting/weight bearing activity (that means YOU, rotary cutter) is off-limits right now.  It also means that I have to leave the house twice a week during a pandemic to go to physical therapy, which is scary.  But I'm determined to fix this problem once and for all.

Stay safe, everyone! 

put one foot in front of the other...

Beautiful fog this week.

Amazing new life in the garden...I love to see green growth coming up out of the tangle of dead leaves.

Hello, old friends:  columbines and hostas.

Hello, bleeding hearts.

I bought a bunch of .25 bulbs at Walmart a few weeks ago and have planted them successively.  These blue irises, of course...

...but also these pretty little things, reminiscent of muscari, although I can't recall the name in the moment.

It was St. Patrick's Day last week, so besides the rainbow cookies, I baked some soda bread...and also made corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes, and sprouts.

Tabitha approved.

I decorated with green banners and window clings.

We had a nice little party!  It's important to keep doing certain things, I think.  I try to do the things I normally do - celebrate holidays, plant spring bulbs, and enjoy the new growth - but I'm not fully present in the moment.  I suffer from anxiety on a good day - during these uncertain times, I'm really struggling with panic.  I know people who are sick with the virus.  I know people who have lost their jobs.  I go online for news and updates, but get frustrated with the (typical) lack of national leadership and the conflicting messages.  I get on Facebook to see how acquaintances are doing, and see a lot of the usual jumble of misinformation ("We enjoyed movie theatres too much, so God removed movie theatres!!"  "It's just the flu, people.  Calm down." "Stock up on your essential oils!  They help!!").  I'm also seeing a lot of positive things - people bonding with their families, playing games, hugging pets, sharing with neighbors.  It helps.

Personally, we're staying home.  We're working a lot.  We're reading.  We're watching a lot of distracting T.V. - and we are not necessarily practicing social distancing!

I'm just trying to enjoy the little things, keep our traditions going, and take a lot of deep breaths.

I think the British had it right during World War II:  "Keep Calm and [try to] Carry On." So I'm going to knit, sew, read, work, garden, watch trash T.V., and hope that things improve over the coming weeks.

Stay healthy, friends! 

rainbow bright

Bosewichte had a nice treat today. 

I planted some wheatgrass earlier this week.  Cats love it and I love how "SPRING!!!" it looks.  The roots are so shallow that the seeds will grow in anything (I've even seen it grown in eggshells!).  I had a natural wood tray with some tiny ceramic inserts that were perfect.

It grows fast. After just a day...

Check it out!

I have so many things growing inside in pots...one of my favorite March traditions.

I've got bulbs potted up on the front porch, too, and delightful patches of green are poking up all over the front garden!

I checked my little greenhouses, and was rewarded with some exciting growth.

Unfortunately, the soil is too wet.  I must've added too much water when I  prepared the soil mixture.  Certainly most of the seeds will rot, and it's too cool to open the greenhouse tops to evaporate out some of that water.  But now I know for next year, and I still have plenty of seeds to direct-sow in the garden this April.

Still seeing more signs of life out on the hiking trails...

And it's nearly St. Patrick's Day!  I made a batch of my annual St. Patrick's Day cookies a few days ago.  They're easy - a batch of vanilla cookie dough, split and rainbow colored, molded into a long cookie "snake" and encased in chocolate cookie dough.

They're slice and bake.

I may have pre-sampled one. YUM.

If I can get organized in time, I will also make corned beef/cabbage and Irish soda bread, although the corned beef and cabbage combo, at least, is not really an Irish (more of an Irish-American) tradition.  It's still a fun thing to do!

It's nice to have something to focus on, because the coronavirus issue is definitely concerning.  Todd and I are lucky...we don't have kids to find childcare for, we always work from home, and our business does not tend to be affected by downturns of the economy.  We're still taking precautions...practicing a little social distancing (one of my favorite things to do, anyway)...and keeping our loved ones close!

We have families and friends that we're worried about, and are concerned about all of the hourly workers that may be facing financial hardships due to restaurant and business closings...the kids who only get a square meal in school, and now school is cancelled indefinitely...those in the tourism trades that suddenly have nothing to do...and many, many others, especially those in other countries whose lives have been completely changed by the virus.  I hope that this self-imposed semi-quarantine arrests the virus here and that life can go back to normal soon.

Stay safe, everyone!