May Day..

  It's the first of May, and unseasonably cool. The chives, however, have flaunted their flowers and look sweet.

      
  The red maple is breathtaking this year..the colors are magnificent and the tree is finally filling out and growing taller. It's the one we brought from our little cottage in North Carolina. (You can click on these to see them closer).

  Here's the far end of the giant hosta bed. They are about 6 inches tall and will be well over 2 feet tall in another month.  There's a big bed of bee balm at the very end there...but it looks like it's being taken over by mint.  More investigating needs doing there.

  This is out on the front side of the house where we planted the edamame last year. You can see the rose of sharon there, plus the apple and cherry trees. The Irishman has turned over the dirt and added the new load of manure...

  It's time for us to figure out where we're putting things in what garden beds ...we always rotate crops, and that's one reason I keep a garden journal every year. lol  (Like we could ever remember what was where...)  We'll still plant the old standbys, like sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I'm planting a few yellow crooknecks this year, and maybe one zucchini.  No acorns or Hubbards though. They take up too much space and are too prone to insect infestations in these parts. Since we garden organically, I have to be pragmatic. I also have a bag of red pontiac seed potatoes ready to be dusted with sulphur and put in the ground. Someone told me the other day that potatoes should be in the ground by St Patrick's day. I laughed and said, well...not at Honeysuckle Hill they don't.  We never plant them that early, as you often can't get anything in the ground around here at that time.  And we always have a good crop, one that gets us through over half the winter, at least. We'll have tomatoes and okra, cucumbers and salad stuff.  We'll plant more green beans this year, as we ran out a couple of weeks ago. And I have enough edamame seed to plant again this year.  I want more stuff that I can can and dry and not freeze, as the plan is to try and be less and less dependent on electricity run machines. And this year we lost some stuff to a freezer brerakdown. Yuck. Don't want to go through that again.

   We worked out in the yards on Friday all day, then went to Mr Curry's for dinner. It was great. I did a little too much mowing on this old raggedy yard...there's nary a 2 ft stretch that is halfway level.  lol  On Saturday I had a little gig...I cooked lunch for 16 people at a yoga retreat out at the La Vista Ecological Center. It was 2 soups, salads from the gardens, bread and dessert. I worked for about 4 hours putting it all together..the vegetarian soups won rave reviews, and everyone had at least one bowl of each. It was quite fun, and I hope they ask me back to do it again. Also won a couple of promises to be at the Harvest soups workshop I'll be teaching there in November.  All in all, it was a lovely day, and I was basking in the attention and compliments.

  I have to get some granola bars made for Patrick's lunches and throw together some kind of lunch for us. He has a business meeting this morning after the Sunday group, and he'll come home after...I have to leave for MissB's at 2:30. So...I'd best be getting my butt out of this seat and into the day.

  Happy May, all y'all....



Namaste.