Signs of Spring

The last few weeks have been a bit harried...health and moods and weather have all been rather tumultuous. Makes it challenging to find the time and mental space to pause and reflect.  But when Spring suddenly sprang this week, a magical moment presented itself and I ran outside to share it with a few of the blossoms waking up after a long winter's nap.

The red flowering currant is one of my favorite NW native plants--such lovely blossoms, and so accommodating to whatever plot of ground it finds itself in. 

 

Our lilac is about to burst, and our neighbor's pink plum tree in the background has been dropping petals all over  the backyard. Earlier this week I looked out the window and was surprised to see it snowing--then realized that the snowflakes were actually pink petals.

And the first forget-me-not. Soon they will be covering the backyard in delicate periwinkle.

We harvested our first greens last week--oh what a delight! So refreshing to be creating meals from the backyard again--scrambled eggs with spicy mesclun and chives--yum!

A few weeks ago we dug up the last of the parsnips which had started to sprout after dying back over the winter. 

Some of them were monsters, but there were a few just right for eating. I had been meaning to try this carrot parsnip ginger soup and thought that the final parsnip harvest would be the perfect occasion. So delicious! It got rave reviews from the man of the house, and even passing marks from the toddler (who disdains most veggies at this time).

And you? Have you noticed signs of Spring in your neck of the woods?

Lenten Reflections

"You are dust, and to dust you will return." This phrase lingered in my mind today as I shoveled mud and contemplated how to observe Lent in a meaningful way this year.  Thinking about myself as dust used to depress me, but now I take great comfort in remembering my origins and ultimate destination. It is a shared fate with all living things, the cycle of birth and death, decay and new birth. Just look at the compost bin.

 

In our neck of the woods this time of year, a more appropriate rendering of this phrase would be "you are mud, and to mud you will return."  The chickens delight in all the worms uncovered when we expose fresh earth.

Thinking about my dust-ness helps to calm my crazy multi-tasking anxiety about whether I'm getting enough done each day, accomplishing anything worthwhile, or making any headway toward my ultimate goals. I find myself too often frustrated by the daily mundane tasks required of a mother of a small child--"I can't get anything done!!" When I think this way, I know I'm losing perspective. It's so easy to let ambition and worry rob the present moment of joy and contentment.

Today the first daffodil bloomed.

 

Her loveliness brought to mind another phrase, and sent me to our little King James to look up the whole passage: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say to you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" (Matthew 6:28-30).

This lent, I think I will try to focus on "toiling not". Finding contentment in the mundane, appreciating the beauty right before my eyes, loving the people I'm blessed to call family, and the people who cross my path each day. Performing each task with mindfulness and gratitude, and letting anxiety and frustration fall away. 

How will you find meaning in the days of Lent this year?

For more Lenten thoughts, Eileen has a lovely reflection over at Rhythm of the Home. 

First transplants

Today was moving day for these happy little greens!

Spicy mesclun, scallions, butterhead lettuce

Cilantro

Butterhead Lettuce

They have been growing inside under fluorescent lights for three weeks and are ready to venture out to the backyard now. We've set them out in our new hoop house during the day for the last few days to get acclimated to the outdoors a bit. 

In addition to building the portable hoop house above, Dan secured some hoops to one of our raised beds this weekend so that we can cover the tender plant starts and provide a more protected environment during these early spring days.

This is our first year experimenting with season extending in this way. Without the plastic cover, we would need to wait a bit longer to plant outside.

I'm so happy with our new soil block system for seed starting. I've never had such healthy, vibrant seedlings. I think the homemade potting mix helped, too. We used a combination of peat, local organic compost, perlite (which I just learned is a naturally occurring volcanic rock), and an all-purpose organic fertilizer.

To prepare our bed for planting, we let the chickens scratch around for slugs and eat up the nice lush crimson clover cover crop. Then we cut back the remaining clover, put it in the compost, and lightly hand-tilled with a garden fork to loosen the clover roots and aerate the soil.

One of our beds with crimson clover still growing as a cover crop (and garlic sprouting with a straw mulch in the back)

We would have added compost at this time, but didn't have any quite ready. Hopefully we can side dress the plants with compost once we have some ready. We worked in some lime and the all-purpose organic fertilizer (purchased at Concentrates) recommended by Steve Solomon in Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, then popped the little soil block transplants into the bed. No plastic pots to wrestle with!

 

One of the benefits of minimal tilling is that our friends the earthworms (and all the other soil critters) are left in one piece. Now, with any luck, we'll be eating fresh backyard greens in just a few weeks!

Market Bag and Bag It Oregon

I've been meaning to sew up some cloth bags to bring to the store for a long time now. Finally this afternoon, the timing was right, the toddler was playing with dad, and the inspiration struck. I pulled out the thrifted rainbow shower curtain I had set aside for this purpose at least a year ago, found the online pattern for a Market Bag Tote from Denyse Schmidt Quilts, and started cutting. An hour later I was happy to have this lovely, simple bag:

 

After finishing the bag, I checked my email and found a reminder for the event Bag It Oregon. Hollywood Theater in Portland is showing the film Bag It, about our overuse and abuse of plastic, every night March 4-10 at 7pm. There will also be elected officials, music, and discussions about plastic bags and the upcoming consideration by Oregon congress to ban single-use plastic bags.

 

Indeed it does seem a perfect time to be sewing up some nice durable non-plastic market totes!

Birthday Sewing

My little babe just turned two! Some birthday sewing was surely in order for the occasion. Of course she would need a crown...

 

A little dress...

 

And a banner would get us feeling festive...

Some carrot cupcakes would sweeten things up...

Now, when will all those special guests arrive for the party?

 

The guests did arrive, and we all had a lovely time. We're so thankful to have really wonderful neighbors with whom to share day-to-day life (and celebrations!)

A few details on the projects: 

A tutorial for the birthday crown can be found at Frontier Dreams.

The dress is my first attempt at such a garment--I used a very simple $2.99 pattern--McCalls M6261, and fabric I found at SCRAP and a garage sale. It is a little rough (especially the sleeves!) but so fun to actually complete a dress for my daughter. I still have some of the dresses my mom made for me as a little girl, and I so loved wearing them. Unfortunately, my little girl is very particular about her wardrobe at the moment (she'd really rather wear nothing at all), and when I tried to put it on her, she started screaming and wouldn't stop until I took it off. Not even the prospect of cherry pockets tempted her. Nor the puffed sleeves (she doesn't know about Anne of Green Gables yet). Oh well. It's a little big, anyway...maybe she'll warm up to it by summer time. Such are the hazards of sewing for one's children! 

The banner/garland is inspired by several variations I've seen on blogs and in friends' homes. Here are a few of the blogs that inspired me:

Purl Bee Party Garland

Soulemama Birthday Banner 

Sew Mama Sew Scalloped Fabric Garland

I created my version with some garage sale quilt squares, which simplified the cutting--I just cut each square on the diagonal,  sewed right sides together, turned right side out, pressed, and then sewed each triangle into an extra-wide double fold bias tape. I love the fabric--sort of vintage country--so bright and cheerful. The squares have found their way into several other projects, including some little pants pockets and these potholders.

And the recipe for carrot cake can be found here.

Wishing everyone happy birthday sewing in the coming year!

Seed Starting

This is what we have growing in the basement at the moment:

 

Two weeks ago, they looked like this: 

 

 

The miracle of a germinating seed never ceases to amaze me--one of those common miracles we're lucky enough to witness all the time, if we keep our eyes open. This year we are attempting to increase our seed-starting operation to a level of production that will supply plant starts for friends and neighbors, as well as our own garden. We're trying out the soil block method that I learned from the good people at Fields Farm, and read about in Eliot Coleman's book The New Organic Grower. I like it so much better than plastic or even peat pots. I think the plants do, too. There is no plastic to waste, and the roots stop at the edge of the soil block, preventing them from becoming root bound. They are also less stressed when being transplanted outside. We got our block makers from Johny's Selected Seeds. They have a great little video showing how the system works on their website. We used a modified version of Eliot Coleman's seed starting mix recipe for the growing medium. We purchased the raw materials (peat, perlite, compost, all purpose organic fertilizer, lime) from Concentrates here in Portland.

We're using fluorescent lights right now, which work fine, but leave a bit of an empty artificial feeling in my gut. I used to start my seeds in a sunny south facing window, but there just isn't enough room in that one window for everything we want to grow any more. Some day we hope to have a big greenhouse where the little baby plants can soak up the authentic rays of the sun and all the good energy she provides. In the mean time we're planning to put together a little plastic-covered hoop house to move the plants into when they're too big for the seed starting cart. Dan built the cart a few weeks ago and it's working well so far: 

 

The lights are on chains that can be raised as the plants grow. It's important to keep the lights just barely above the plants so they don't get to stretched out and leggy.  We spray the blocks with water several times a day to keep them moist. 

What are you growing this year?

Snow Day

We woke up to snow this morning! The first "real" snow of the winter. The nice thing about living in an area where snow falls so rarely is that it shuts down the city infrastructure for a while and we get to stay home to play.  I had an extra two hours this morning before I had to be at work, so we went outside for a bit and appreciated the transformation brought by this lovely white stuff before it melted away!