Ply and Burl

Usually it’s so wet and dreary here in upstate New York that we’re begging, pleading, on our knees imploring the gods to send us more sun. But this spring has been so warm, dry and sunny that our spring flowers are growing a little less robustly than usual. It’s been a little sad for me, seeing that I planted a boatload of new perennials last year and this is when they take off. So I was thrilled to see the rain coming down the last few days, and the burst of growth that resulted. A funny upshot was my obsession with raindrops, leading to more than a few garden photos like the following:

OK, so now that there’s been rain, let’s get that sun back before I up and move to Arizona!

I put a little bit of the backyard garden on my desk to remind me of how beautiful the trees and plants outside are this time of year.

Wahoo! My Hourglass Sweater is finally finished!

Sadly, the neck does feel like it’s going to stretch and fall off my shoulders. I can’t complain — I was warned by many a knitter to knit a few extra rows to make the neck smaller, but when I tried it on, it just didn’t feel as wide as it did once I’d finished. Any advice for how to keep the neck a smaller size without frogging and adding rows? I wove a thread through it, but I’m not sure how much that’ll help.

And, for kicks, more spring flowers!

Remember these gourds from the end of the last garden season?

Well, here they are at the beginning of the next growing season:

Amazing! The ones that are covered in mold and look like they’d melt into a torrent of gourd slime if you tried to pick them up — they’re actually completely hollow and hard! The mold is dry, and sitting on top of the dried-out skin. The gourds that are a nice mottled tan are what the moldy ones will look like after a soak in the sink and gently scrub with copper wool.

I’m thoroughly impressed at their transformation. These gourds spent the winter sitting on my enclosed back porch, going through freezes and thaws, and giant changes in temperature and humidity. Still, they managed to dry out instead of rot, and turn into the real McCoy.

If you’re intersted in growing and drying gourds yourself, check out this pdf from Johnnie’s on how to grow and dry gourds.

The six inches of snow melted in a warm rain storm over the weekend and look what I found bursting through underneath:

Chicken and Hen

A perennial whose name I’ve forgotten

My first crocus and some weeds that have already flowered!

We just bought our house last summer so everything coming up in the garden is a surprise!