Garden Work

The work has begun. We started digging the garden. We moved the garden two years ago, so this is the first year we have dug the garden by hand (or shovel). There is tonnes of twitch grass and the soil has lots of clay, so it is a hard slog. I have to rest every foot or so, but I am getting tougher. I know this doesn't make any sense, but I think the soil looks like chocolate cake.

Some Inmates of the Reifel Bird Santuary

Most wanted poster

Coot foot
Sandhill crane

Canada Goose

Reclusive wood duck

Pintail

Crow use us as Tools

On a Wing and a

Experts report that evolution happens much faster than we previously thought.

They came to this conclusion based on the wings of a chic-a-dee. A local variety of chi-a-dees' wings have evolved in order to better facilitate eating from a bird feeder.

I am not sure what it means realy. I just thought that it was interesting.

Sunday at the Farm

It is a slow day. Yesterday was a day of activity: Bread baking and lamb shank roasting along with some long walks and garden finessing. I planted a row of peas last weekend and I hope to plant some potatoes today.

We have been eating chard and spinach from the cold frame as well as the kale that over wintered and some carrots I planted in the garden and then forgot about. The carrots are good although they are a little watery tasting. Not as good as when they are first planted. The chives are up, and I have been mixing them in with my French bread recipe, making a tasty bread loaf with lots of green bits. We have been eating young mint leaves for a couple of weeks, mostly putting it in our morning cup of coffee. I can't wait for more fresh garden produce.

The garden is calling ... soon.

Violets and Spring

It is spring in Vancouver and now that the Olympics are over it is not treason to say that spring has come. The sweet violets are almost finished producing flowers, and when I checked past garden records, I noticed that the violets are a month ahead of last year and the year before.

I picked a few violets and sugared them, by dipping them in egg white and berry sugar. I did not bother painting them with a paint brush so they are not quite as perfect as they could be. It is amazingly time consuming even just dipping the flowers, and it produces very few sugared violets. But violets are the most delightful flower and the sugar preserves them. Usually I decorate a summer birthday cake with them. They add a little crunch to the soft cake, and it is like reliving the first joy of spring all over again.