Let the season begin!

Hi.

I’m back.

Sorry about the extended absence again, but I took the fam down to California to avoid some kind of “The Shining” type scene in which Jack becomes a dull boy… with an axe… but with rain.

Luckily, it was beautiful and sunny every day, and I’m back in the land of ports with replenished vitamin D.

Much to report from Rancho Hayseed:

It’s spring.  Note metaphorical phallus protruding from the ground.  Literally, it’s asparagus.

The greens that I started in a hoophouse (actually, just some PVC pipes and plastic sheeting) outside clearly have benefited from the experience.  The ones that I left to the elements are… about the same as when I put them in the ground– several weeks ago.

We may not be full into summer, but without beating a dead horse, the joint is covered in spring flowers.

This year’s primary experiment is honeybees.  They arrive on Monday, and so I decided to put out the hive to clear out some room in my office.  Oh, I just know I’m gonna get stung.

And last, but also probably least, is today’s art.  The moon and star magnolia.  Get it?  Art.

The chickens are showing signs on someone molting, as in lots and lots of feathers scattered about.  The mason bees continue to hatch/emerge.  Saw some females today, and they’re probably 50% larger than the males.  And… our first meal of the garden season was a sauteed garden mizuna with mushrooms.

Forecast is for 70 degrees tomorrow before we return to the 50s next week.