more gray, rainy, misty, days - and now finally some sun and a walkabout in the garden and a table to make Ed scream!

we've had several gray, misty, torrential raining, and foggy days for a while now. but this afternoon some of the clouds lifted and the sun came out for a bit. but with all of that mist and rain - everything is turning green and Strachan's Brook is filling up.

(note the table in the middle of the pic. more on that later!)

i love the colourful flowers amongst the green.

check out this prett y purple tulip and purple and white one.

more red tulips and more canada150 tulips.

i can't wait to mark and propogate them for next year so that i can plant them according to colour and have colour bursts all over the yard. the tulips i got were a mixed bag and half were daffodils. oh well - they were cheap!

i really love this purple one! for some reason it reminds me of jambaloney's mom

a tiny bit of bad news - our truck, a 2006 ford f150/8ft box that we bought the first week we moved here (2010) is sadly on it's last legs.  the steering wheel was slightly off due to the the left front wheel bearing needing replacement. jam dropped it off at our excellent dealership and they called him back in an hour and a half and gave him a rental vehicle because according to the mechanic, the truck was undriveable and our warranty covers us for a rental until our truck gets fixed. they also told him that the truck would not pass inspection next february, so we are on the lookout for either a new truck or a used truck from our dealership who did not lead us astray ever when we purchased truckdura. we are looking at getting a new/used vehicle before december. i have to say tho - it's hard to look at the driveway and see a white 4-door sedan of which kind we have no idea and don't care to go and look atbut it's a good car and our dealership and mechanic will not let us drive truckdura until it's tickedy-boo.

the strawberry hugelkulture is already producing blossoms! oh fresh strawberries here we come!

the dill is looking great!

here's half of the tomatoe plants getting ready to be moved outside.

amaranth is taking off!

my water lotus experiment paid off and i will scarify the rest of my seeds and plant them in our pond. woohoo for the frogs!

radishes are already coming up and we will thin them and use their little leaves as microgreens.

the kale has already gone to flower and will be saved for seed.

pay no attention to the weeds in this bed. this bed is where i planted our own, shrunken 2 yr old carrots which have come back with a vengeance and they are saving seed as well.

 the daikon radishes are sprouting, soon to be thinned....there are 6 overwintered broccoli on the right and 6 transplanted cabbages to the left.

teehee. a potatoe sprout. i loooove potatoes!

this sad looking little bed is a bunch of chamomile plants that jambaloney transplanted. they are already going to flower.

they will soon look as pretty as this bed.

here is a big group of winter cress that jambaloney weedwhacks around because tons of little solitary bees, hummingbirds, little ants and other flying bugs love these flowers!

the ornamental apple trees are sending out new branches galore and have shoots on the older branches. we're praying the purple finches won't decimate the new growth like they have done for the past several years!

here's a tiny ornamental rose bush covered in new growth.

and our later blooming white daffodil-thingies are just making heads.

there's a ton of salad out in the yard, peas are coming up and i have planted 2 of 3 different kinds of cucumbers, 2 of 3 different zuccs, and 4 different melons in the greenhouse that's in the house. those will be moved out to the greenhouse in another week and a bit and transplanted into the ground.

oh...and remember the table i mentioned in the first pic above? it's for my friend Ed from Riverbend Journal. He makes some of the most beautiful home-constructed furniture that you can see here. he's extremely skilled at precision wood-working and finishing. really go check that post and then scroll through some of his older posts and see some of the beautiful work he has done.

as some of you may have noticed, over the years we normally have a rickety old coffee table in our front yard to feed the birds from (as well as our bird feeders). well due to the rainy wet weather and tons of snow, we go through about one coffee table a year. no worries - jambaloney always finds something appropriate in someone else's garbage. this year he found the bottom of a little table in someone's garbage...and a piece of crappy plywood in someone else's garbage. brought the garbage home and in just under 10 minutes cut down the plywood, stuck it on the table, 4 screws later and the birds are happy.

he has dedicated this table to Ed!