Busy Day In The Garden

6:23

6:47

7:36

8:49

It's 7:20 and I woke to sunrise at 6:30 but now, the clouds have moved in, a vast wall of dark gray having over the eastern sky. It's windy, the flag flying, on a surprisingly warm 48º morning. I didn't get out to kayak until 7:40 and joined our neighbors, up for the first time since fall, for a paddle.  It was easy going south back towards their cottage, but windy and choppy on the way home,

Paddling With Neighbors, Tina And Jim

Jim And Tina

Yesterday was a good day because we were able to spend all of it outside, enjoying the day getting stuff done, no snow, no rain, just a warming day. It started with a long paddle to Tom's Point, on a 30º morning. After the blog, we cleaned up the kitchen, pulled out a steak for dinner, finished the blog, gathered the trash, and drove to the Transfer Station. We then drove to Sherman, Amish country, where we were able to get some compost and topsoil since our local quarry is not yet open. 

An Amish Dryer

Chautauqua Countryside

Greening Of Farms

We then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon getting things ready for summer.  I wasted my time filing a pipe for my martin house, trying to enlarge the opening to no avail. Evie raked and cleared the beds around her garden, filling a couple of more barrels with leaves and deadfall.  I also got out the hedge trimmer and gave the red twigs a shearing. We both took numerous timeouts, out of gardening shape from a long winter. For lunch, Evie made a couple of egg/tuna sandwiches and I watched The Sopranos, then returned to my new book, The Investigator by John Sandford. It follows Lucas Davenport's daughter, now working for Homeland Security as she seeks domestic terrorists in Texas. 

Around 2:30, we began to spread the compost and topsoil around the garden and flower beds, and we moved a couple of bushes, making more room for Evie's dahlias. We were tempted to take time out and sit on the dock but were too happy working in the yard.  We finished outside around 3:30, suddenly tired enough to pack it all up.  I then went into our crawl space where we have stored Evie's dahlias tubers for the winter, about 40 of them, and pulled them out. We are not sure yet whether they wintered well or not. They cannot freeze nor can they get too warm and the crawl space should have been fine. Time will tell.

For dinner, Evie roasted made some rosemary potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and grilled a steak on a grill pan. With a salad, we had a fine Saturday night dinner, one which would have cost at least fifty to sixty bucks at a restaurant.  Eating out is getting expensive around here. We started a film called Pig, with Nicolas Cage, soon got bored and turned to a series on AppleTV called Slow Horses. It follows a group of M-15 losers in Great Britain, screwups, who obviously will not follow regulations and become heroes.