Dining outdoors and in
Not many of the scraps I put out to nourish the earth get left to rot down. He knows where to look and I think he can tell time.
Indoors I was all set to make bread and found, unbelievably, I was completely out of yeast. So I made soda bread, not a great deprivation. Yeast is now on the shopping list.
My knitting groups have been running out of doors for a couple of weeks, but without me. With a brisk wind and temperature in the 60s f. I'm not up for sitting outside and trying to get my hands to work. This Friday might work though. We'll see. It's going to be a bit warmer. My inner introvert is saying let's not go and say we did..
This has been a long cold spring, and the flowers love it, blooming longer than usual, no hot days to get them blown out.
it's been a weird flower year. My (inside) Christmas cactus has been in the front hall all winter and blooming nonstop since early November. I know I have two different strains, one is a Christmas cactus, and one is apparently and Easter cactus which blooms, duh, around whichever easter is around at the time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's almost become a perennial cactus, either that or it's about to keel over and die.
And yeah, I have daffodils everywhere, some I think the moles and squirrels have rehomed, they seem to be coming up in places I never knew I had. The yard has been alight with them for a month, through frosts, and snow, and 36 deg. nights...
WE had to cut down the old pear tree, no more pears for the racoons and resident squirrel to raid, sadly. We left a stub, in hopes that is isn't a dead as it seemed to be...
And blessings on your own squirrel. They are the cleaning crew of the forest.
I feel friendlier to them now that they're eating usefully, rather than raiding the bird feeders.
DeleteI haven't had soda bread for a long time. Your loaf looks de-lish!
ReplyDeleteIt's good. I made it with Irish butter and spread it with same.
DeleteThree days plus of 70ºF weather forecast for here in Vermont. I hope your area does as well.
ReplyDeleteI thought of your mitered squares yesterday when watching "Knit and Crocket Now" on PBS. I wrote down the instructions how to knit them.
Are you going to give it a try?
DeleteSquirrels (and raccoons) are so smart and very hard for us to outwit. I'm sure your Butter Boy must indeed be able to tell time. Hope he doesn't get to share that great-looking soda bread though!
ReplyDeleteNot if Handsome Son and the neighbors have any say in the matter!
DeleteLovely soda bread! I always forget how much I love it until something brings it to my attention. As you have done.
ReplyDeleteButternut Boy appears to have survived the winter. He looks plenty sassy and will soon be getting fatter, I guess. I read an article in the NYTs about how people have wanted to feed animals throughout history. They still don't really understand why. There are lots of explanations, I guess, but none that are adequate to quite explain our compulsion.
I wonder if we started out placating them in our cave dwellings, and they caught on!
DeleteSmiles for the squirrel who can tell time.
ReplyDeleteI bet Butternut Boy loves your varied and healthy diet since he gets the scraps. We have quite a few squirrels in our yard and they all seem to be more than healthy!
ReplyDeleteHe also has access to wild nuts, black walnuts, hazelnuts, beech, a few yards from my house, and wild fruit galore. No wonder the squirrel population is flourishing.
DeleteIt has been a long and slow spring. I do believe this Friday will turn the corner, especially in NJ.
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly tired of cold winds.
Deleteeven down here the cool mornings are still surprising us and that deep freeze really put some things behind but the shift to summer is underway.
ReplyDelete