a couple of grey days, a couple of nice days, lots of food, the river, strawberries, getting things in the ground and the first trout of the year - woohoo!

today was a beautiful day!

we were up early and got a lot of stuff accomplished...it finally feels like we are catching up and spring is really here.

it's always good to stuff your face with delicious raw food...only the shrimp has been cooked!

we went for a walk to the river the other day....it was a bit of a grey day but we didn't care.

going around the bend in the road.

lots of baby trees where mature trees are dying. nature, when left alone, always knows how to take care of itself.

deer tracks!!!

it would appear that a group of deer came up our river road and right up to our well! then they probably saw the house and smelled human activity and then took off. but it is always great to know that they do really live in this area!

my man....carrying some fishing gear and a rod.

one of my yellow flip-flops that got blown away!

boat-dura. she's pretty ugly but we love her!

here is a the canning lid that i nailed to the tree in memory of my friend SciFiChick. you can read about it here. the writing has worn off but the next time we go down to the river, i will take my marker and re-write on it. she would love this!

here's the river....i always take this picture for my friend C.

here's me sitting on boat-dura with my flowered gum boots. i've had those things near on 8 years now!

and my man, doing what he loves.

he wasn't planning on catching anything....the river has only just melted and the trout are still pretty sluggish.

he just loves casting. but lookee here - first trout of the year. we ate that in honour of Sweet Sandy!

the next trout belongs to Pioneer Preppy.

here's some delicious chicken curry loaded with so many spices it almost blew our heads off! thank goodness for the yogurt, coconut and raisins to help cool it off. and fresh mint from our greenhouse!

here's a sad story with a happy ending. i have always ordered all of our seeds or plants from Vessey's - they are a fantastic company from Prince Edward Island which is just to the east of our island. they also ship to the US and i can attest to the quality of their products and their customer service.

in december/january, i ordered 25 strawberry plants from them as well as a bunch of seeds and some garlic sets. the seeds came almost immediately but the garlic sets and strawberry plants would ship at a later date as vessey's waits to ship until after the frost free dates. so about 3 weeks ago our post office lady called to tell us that a box marked "onion sets" had arrived. i knew it was the garlic sets. as we don't go very often to the town where our post office is, i asked the lady to hold the box until another box came in - that would be the strawberry plants. well, lo and behold, jam went the other day to pick up the parcel and the strawberry plants were in the same box.

and looked like this.

i tried to revive them with water for several hours, then planted them in some really good soil in a pot but i don't hold up much hope.

i called vessey's and explained to them that we don't get a lot of parcels, that it's quite a drive to our post office and that there was nothing on the box indicating that live plants were included. i wasn't making a complaint - just a suggestion - that perhaps they could put a sticker on the box if live plants are included. the lady completely understood and expedited 25 more plants - free of cost! now that is customer service! we have been dealing with vessey's for 10 yrs now and we have never had a single complaint. they are a great company!

here's some bbq steak and bean salad.

how about some broccoli and beef - much better than you can get at a chinese take-out!

how's 14 rows of carrots planted sound? sounds mighty fine to me!

and a whole bunch of brassicas transplanted - woohoo!

this is a sage plant that we planted from seed and overwintered - he's already going to flower!

and finally - some green things coming up in the yard.

those daffodils should be opening soon - woohoo!

it's been a long, but good, week. my maniac man has been working his butt off in the yard and on his contract! right now he's out there building a new pea bed. tomorrow beets, radishes and peas get planted. it feels like this is going to be a great gardening year even though we were off to a bit of a late start. no worries - we're more than making up for it!