All this thyme

 

The thyme overwintered in the high tunnel. And how! It has surpassed its allotted quarter raised bed to take over nearly the whole thing. I must trim it back to make room for rosemary and oregano. This will involve digging out roots, which is not my favorite activity. The sage has resprouted to a lesser extent. I cut out the dead branches and hope that the rest will continue to grow.

Monstrous thyme with sage in the back

A small population of Johnny Jump-Ups has started up all by itself in the high tunnel. I love Johnny Jump-Ups. So cheery. One of the few games in town for pollinators this time of year.

Volunteer Johnny Jump-Ups

This bumblebee was losing no time systematically visiting each bloom, collecting what it could.

Bumblebee on a Johnny Jump-Up blossom (left)

Another bumblebee was visiting the tulips underneath one of the oaks. The tulips are unscathed from the frosts we’ve had this week. It almost seems like they are lasting longer in the cold.

Tulips

Back at the creek, the mayapples have finally hit their stride. I think I planted 5 initially. I count 32 in this picture with more coming. My plan to crowding out the reed canary grass is coming to fruition. BWAH-HA-HA!

Spreading mayapples

Dutchmen’s britches are blooming. I love the little pants hanging on the line. No idea how they ever get pollinated. I should dissect one of the flowers and see what’s going on, but I can’t bear to destroy one.

Tiny pants!

The bluebells are opening up more. They too should start spreading one of these years.

Virginia bluebells

Jane and I hope to add more wildflowers to the space by the creek in honor of our mothers, who loved them. I hope to live long enough to see them proliferate.

 

Perennials

 We had such a pleasant weekend, calm, warm, and sunny. I started the outdoor chores in earnest. It isn’t time to plant the garden yet, so I was working back by the creek preparing to plant some natives. I’d been walking back there with my camera every day, waiting for the trout lily bud to open. First the bud turned upside down. Then it stalled out for a couple of days. Wouldn’t you know, on Saturday I didn’t take my camera because my hands were full of clippers, rake, and shovel to start my work. And there was the bloom. I had to walk back to the house to get the picture. I shouldn’t complain. I’ve waited 10 years for that flower.

The first flower on a trout lily that I planted years ago

Dandelions are blooming everywhere. They’re so cheerful in the spring. Their bright yellow blossoms brighten up the field and provide pollen before most other plants. Red admirals were frequent visitors. They were smaller than I remembered. Maybe the first generation doesn’t get as big. I don’t know how they overwinter. It doesn’t seem like they would have had time to migrate here from somewhere else. I’d guess the caterpillars burrow in somewhere and pupate until spring.

Red admiral butterfly on a dandelion

Last year was my first Big Experiment in growing native plants from seed. I did four different species, all of which germinated and made it through the summer. I am anxiously watching to see if they will come back this year. The partridge peas are annuals, so they will have to sprout from seeds. The other three are perennials. So far, only the cup plants have emerged. I’ve been able to locate almost all of them! Cup plant is one of those species that comes with a caution label, as they can be very aggressive. Jimmy Crack Corn, I say. I’m fighting reed canary grass, as I mentioned in my last post. The more aggressive, the better.

Two cup plants back from winter dormancy

The Virginia bluebells are starting to bloom. They are so pretty. I’m sorry my mom can’t be here to see them. She loved blue in general and blue flowers in particular.

Virginia bluebells

The mayapples are also emerging. We are getting more of those every year.

Mayapples unfurling

The cherry tree in the high tunnel is blooming a little. I wouldn’t say we will have enough cherries for a pie, but it’s early yet.

A cherry blossom in the high tunnel

My rain garden was submerged until today. Most of those plants are starting to grow, and I hope the rest will pop up now that it’s dried out a bit. Here’s a wild iris that is doing well. They are adapted to tolerate being under water.

Wild iris, a.k.a., blue flag

I intended to plant peas today, but step one is putting down the landscape cloth so I know where the row is. It is way too windy for that today. A storm is coming through tonight, and the wind is a prequel. Yesterday, I spent the calm day in the greenhouse potting up peppers and planting tomato and cucumber seeds, thinking the weather would never change. Oh well. My next opportunity to get outside will be Thursday afternoon. I hope the wind dies before then.

 

Solar eclipse

A week ago in my last post, the snow had melted, and heavy rains flooded the field. The next day, it snowed again.

Snow Wednesday morning

Although the weather is variable, or maybe because of it, no conditions last very long. By Thursday, the snow was gone. I took a walk down to the creek to see how much damage we’d had from the flood. The creek had gone down a lot and was well contained within its banks.

Muddy creek two days after the flood

A stream still drained from a neighboring farm.

Water drains from a neighboring farm

The evidence that the creek had overflowed was everywhere. Corn stubble piled up on the creek side of the burn pile

Corn stubble (V-shape in foreground) carried by the flood and blocked by the burn pile

And wrapped a couple of feet up this grapevine.

Flotsam wrapped around a grapevine by the creek

The south field still had standing water.

Standing water in the south field

In addition to the corn stalks, we are gifted with silt from the neighboring farms. It covered the grass everywhere the water had slowed down enough for the soil to settle out. Just like on the Nile, our field gets richer with every flood.

Free topsoil from the neighbors!

The weather warmed up considerably yesterday. On my walk yesterday, I saw that the water in the creek was clearing up.

Lower, cleaner water in the creek

I was excited to see that one of the Virginia bluebells that I planted a few years ago had sent out runners! The original plant, which now has several clones in a cluster, is on the left and has also produced four more sprouts that are off to the right. Three are in one row and another is by itself. I have been consciously planting species that spread in an effort to outcompete the reed canary grass. Progress has been slow.

Original bluebells, upper left, four clones, middle and lower right.

Many years ago, I planted some trout lilies, also known for spreading, and they haven’t done diddle squat. They struggle along, a leaf here, a leaf there. For the first time ever, one is blooming! Maybe this is a sign that they are ready to get going!

Long awaited trout lily blossom

I’ve started to putter outside. The peach tree in the high tunnel has started to bloom. Terry was hoping it would bloom all at once, but it is blooming top to bottom. I suppose this makes sense, as the top of the tree is in the hottest part of the high tunnel. It would be good if we got ripe peaches a few at a time instead of in one big heap. Easier for me, anyway.

Peach blossoms in the high tunnel

The tomatoes were ready to be potted up. I moved them and the peppers out to the greenhouse. The tomatoes, as usual, suffered transplant shock, which is why they look so wilty in this photo. Take heart—they were looking perkier after an hour.

Tomatoes, left; peppers, right

I uncovered the garlic

Garlic

And the strawberries.

Strawberries

The goldfinches are turning gold. The one on the left of the feeder doesn’t have his full black beret yet.

Drama at the bird feeder

The big excitement yesterday was the eclipse. We got to 95% or so. Last week, the forecast was for cloudy weather, so I did not get a pair of glasses. Terry had his from the last eclipse in 2017. I was just getting starting making a pinhole viewer when Stephanie Abrams on the Weather Channel gave a tip about using a colander. Well! I grabbed a small colander and went out. By golly, it works! You have to get it at the right angle and hold it a good distance from the viewing surface. The image is not as clear as it was through Terry’s glasses, but the multiple holes have an artistic effect.

1:29 p.m.

1:48 p.m.

2:04 p.m.

2:20 p.m.

We didn’t see animals behaving oddly. The light dimmed a little, but it was still very bright, considering that we had less than 10% of full sun. Amazing, really. The shadow of the oak tree on the driveway looked furry. I can’t explain that.

Furry shadows. Weird.

After such an exciting day, I had to go in and have a nap.

New roof and lots of rain

 The snow melted quickly. The day after it fell (Saturday), the hens were all over the run once again.

Hens in the snow

As usual, the consequence of muddy feet was muddy eggs.

Muddy toes on egg

We had a good rain last Monday (March 25). I walked to the creek the next morning. We had puddles in the field for the first time in a year. The toad pond is back. So far, it is without toads. The chorus frogs are also still absent. Good thing, because it is supposed to freeze again this week.

The reappearance of the toad pond

The creek finally has water in it! As can be easily seen, there’s an awful lot of runoff from the fields this time of year.

The creek with water in it

The ramps have come up. I think there’s one or two more than last year, but they certainly have not yet started wholesale cloning. Hilda and I planted them years ago. She always hoped that she would be around to harvest them. We did not know that they take 10 years to mature. I hope that means they will start spreading then. I might not be around to harvest them either!

The ramps are surviving, but not yet thriving

The south field was flooded in the usual spots as well.

Water in the south field

Terry has dubbed the downstairs kitchen “the botany lab.” I harvested lettuce from the tiny hydroponic garden for the first time.

Hydroponic lettuce

I planted extra tomato seeds to account for decreased germination in their second year. And they all came up. I had to make those gut-wrenching life and death decisions and cut half of them out. Really, I only need two for the high tunnel. I’ll start the tomatoes for the garden in mid-April.

The surviving tomatoes

The peppers also germinated well. I started them earlier this year because they were so puny at planting last year. By golly, I’m going to cover them with row cover after I plant them so that stupid rabbit doesn’t chew through every stem in a single night!

WAY too many peppers!

Late in the week, we had a new visitor poking holes in the lawn. Flickers are handsome birds. Like cedar waxwings, they always look well-groomed.

Yellow-shafted flicker

Every since I went to a talk by the Citizens Utility Board, I have been on a tear to make the house more energy efficient. We got the basement door replaced in January. I wanted to do the windows next, but Terry pointed out that the roof was in worse shape. I wanted a metal roof because it will last the rest of our lives and is 100% recyclable if it ever does have to be replaced. Asphalt shingles are petroleum products are often not recycled, and when they are, it’s hard because they have several different materials in them. I’m not going to kid you—steel is more expensive.

Here is the Before picture.

The old roof

They started on Wednesday by ripping up the old shingles and putting them into a dumpster trailer conveniently parked in front of the garage. These pictures were taken at 8:40 a.m.

The dumpster trailer in front of the garage

Ripping off the shingles

By 11:29, they had started putting down the water barrier on the main part of the roof.

Starting on the water barrier

When they left for the day, the barrier was done on that part. They still had some shingles to get rid of, but the dumpster was full.

Barrier down on most of the roof. Garage still has shingles

On Thursday, the crew brought the panels. The company doing the work does custom pressing of the steel at their home base in Johnsburg. 

Some of the panels, which came covered in plastic on the top side

I went out for the day. When I got home, the easy part of the roof was all done. We were optimistic that they might be done in another day. 

The roof on the back of the house 

The south of the front is done. Just the garage, kitchen and entryway remain. Putzy

It was not to be. The other part of the roof was putzy, with decorative elements over the garage and front door, etc. They worked steadily and long Friday, Saturday, and even Easter Sunday.

Meanwhile, Terry, Jane, and I had rib roast for Easter. It was a last-minute decision based on Jewel having a sale. I cooked the roast perfectly for the first time ever, and I’m pretty proud of myself. It wasn’t too rare nor cooked to dryness. Good for me.

A perfect rib roast

Here is the After picture of the roof. It was a good thing they did work on Easter. It started raining Monday and hasn’t let up since. I thought the sky had forgotten how to pour as hard as it has been. I expect the creek to be over its banks by end of day. I’m fine with that. We need a substantial ground water recharge. My fear is that this will be all the rain we get until September. We can only wait and see.

All done, and just in time for the deluge