Size does matter

Karen asked in the comments of the Squash-o-Lantern post below about the size of the squash seeds, and I replied that I'd been planning to a post a picture, as soon as the kids carved our regular pumpkins on Halloween eve.

We'd been told by one of the winners at the pumpkin festival that even more important than fertilizer and adequate heat and water is the size of the seed. Bigger is better, she said.

Here's the picture, with the giant squash seed on the left and a regular, garden-variety pumpkin on the right,

Still in the garden

The raised bed flower garden behind the house, back in May.


















Same raised bed flower garden behind the house, in the last week. Columbines at far right, poppies to their left, tall things in the center are monkshood. I'm happiest when the cows and calves stay on their side of the barbed wire fence (in the background, at right).
















Same raised bed, last week, but from the other end.


















Same raised bed, other side. Large rounded clump at far right is a type of daisy. I hacked back the catmint at the front along the corner, so it wouldn't go to seed and stop blooming.


















Closer view of the trellis in the raised bed. Taller blooms at right are cornflowers, and in the middle escaped dill. Big leaves bottom right are hollyhocks. The rest is clematis, sweet pea, and some morning glory, not yet blooming.


















The raised bed vegetable garden. From front to back, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, green beans, scarlet runner beans, scraggly carrots, corn, and more volunteer poppies.

















Under the deck in front of the house. The page wire and morning glories were my idea to cover up the hole in the wooden trellis, made by Evel Knievel five-year-old Davy last year who lost control and crashed his bike. Morning glories, which open around 5 am and close up by 2 pm, blue lobelia, purple calibrachoa (the flowers that look like small petunias). Can't remember the name of the tall pink flowers at center, will look at the tag in the pot.

More from the garden

Eggs from the duck nest in the backyard, not 10 feet from the house. We watched over the duck and her nest for almost a month, mostly from a distance and not too often, and despite the nearby marauding magpies, the duck managed to hatch out all 10 eggs. We checked on the nest on the second to last day to find it full of nine ducklings, with one to go. The next morning, mama and her babies were gone, and a tenth cracked eggshell was left in the nest. Success!


















One of the planters in front of the house, last month. Violas and pansies, and a pink double impatiens that looks like small roses. The big leaves belong to the nolana (see next picture, below), which hadn't started flowering when I took this picture. The nolana stems and flowers took off right after; the stems are thick and almost vining, and the bright blue flowers with white centers resemble morning glories, but stay open all day.






















The nolana, at far left, blooming in the planter. The blue lobelia at right I stuck in a few weeks ago, when it threatened to take over another planter.


















The planter the other day. Colors a bit washed out though in this picture...

Mary Mary quite contrary

And Becky, too. Recent snaps from the garden. I'll post more as Blogger and dial-up will let me.


















Columbines























More columbines. They've been blooming for almost a month, show no signs of giving up any time soon, and their shapes and colors make me happy.























This is cheating a bit. This is the Dropmore honeysuckle, above, when it was blooming last month. Gorgeous and pink for the brief while it lasted.

A better late than never reminder for the (Late) Late Spring Edition of Dawn's Field Days

Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight has this season's installment, in words and plentiful pictures, of the latest Field Day, just in time for late Spring. Rainbows, skinks, flowers, birds and bird books -- something for everyone, especially on an early Spring morning or a quiet, rainy day. Thank you, Dawn, for the wonderful idea and for continuing, season after season.

Into the woods

Tom and the kids went mushroom hunting for morels on Saturday. The haul came to about seven liters, including some whoppers (one below, in Daniel's hands),
































We had some for dinner that night, sauteed in cream with fresh chives from the garden (and organic sea salt from Brittany, so there goes the 100-Mile idea), and the next day I made homemade mushroom soup. The remainder I popped into the freezer, to enjoy the rest of the year.

I hadn't eaten wild mushrooms regularly until I moved here. I took Tom's father's and brother's mushroom hunting abilities on faith, and when I was still around the next morning realized I was onto something good. I will say that having researched wild mushrooms in books and gone hunting with the men in the family, this is one subject where a book just isn't a suitable teacher. Being able to see and touch something you're going to eat that just might not agree with you is a darn sight better than a picture and description.

UPDATED to add:

For more information on mushroom hunting in general and morels in particular, see

The Great Morel website, along with its comprehensive links page (be sure to scroll all the way down) -- including, for Angela, one on Wild Harvest, dedicated to morels, fiddlehead ferns, and wild leeks.

Found in the garden this morning

Happily and busily planting, transplanting, and moving things around in the flower garden early today, I came across this


















which on closer inspection
















proved to be a robin's egg. But why the female robin chose to lay it out in the open, with no nest in sight and far from any trees or shrubs, is a mystery. The grass at left was provided by me, and after taking pictures I recovered the egg to protect it from marauding magpies.

Everything's coming up...

rhubarb.

I was hoping for a larger photo to better show the leaf detail, in all its unfurled promise, but this is as big as I could get it.