My sense of humor is currently on strike

Because of this.

I took these photos about 20 minutes ago.

The only color comes from this pot of pansies at the front steps.

Progress on two fronts

Front #1: The lawns and gardens

Spring is finally "springing" around here, albeit, perhaps, reluctantly.

Actually, the forsythia seems a bit early this year. Why, I don't know. It's now shedding its blossoms and sprouting new leaves.

The daffodils are finally blooming, despite being buried in a late snowfall not too long ago. For awhile I feared it wouldn't bloom at all this year. Daffodils are resilient, for sure.

I checked out the lilac bushes this morning and even tried to get a photo of the buds. No luck with the photo, but the buds are developing. Typically the lilacs are in bloom around May 20-ish.

One patch of primrose has been in bloom for a week now. Another patch, planted near the kitchen window, is a no-show this year. I suspect the %#*^$%# moles got it during winter. We have a serious mole problem on our front lawn. They probably feasted on the roots of the primrose while the snow covered the ground.

(Does anyone know a sure-bet yet humane way to get rid of moles?)

Ken put up the wind spinner yesterday. We received this as a gift this past Christmas, and I've been eager to see it installed in the rock garden, doing its thing. It was quick and easy to install, and Ken pointed out that if we decide to change its location, it'll be easy enough to do that.

Right now it seems to be getting plenty of breeze to keep it twirling.

My seedlings are showing progress. I began moving them outside last week. I store them in the garage each evening, because the nights are still chilly.

I've got butternut squash, cucumbers, zucchinis, green peppers, morning glories, basil and even a mandevilla plant that I managed to keep for the winter in the house, then root a cutting from this spring. Once the gardening centers open, I'll be buying 18 tomato plants and a few more green pepper plants. I'll probably get some kale, too. We enjoy the nice, tender kale in our tossed salads. It's much better than the supermarket kale we sometimes have in the winter.

Front #2: The knitting front 

The Potter's Shawl is coming along well. I'm still on the garter stitch section, with a M1L and M1R every fourth row, but it's pretty much mindless knitting so far.

Things might get a little dicey when I move on to the edging. Time will tell.

So that's what's going on in my neck of the woods in late April.

A trip back home,...and a sweet potato vine update

 On Tuesday I drove to Topsham (Maine), picked up my two sisters and a niece, and continued on to our hometown, North Anson.

Along the way we stopped at "Happy Knits" in Skowhegan. I knew it was going to be a good yarn store when I spotted the yarn bombing out front and also in the lobby.

Pretty yarn-bombed bicycle, isn't it?

My sister Roberta and I both loved this shawl on display, so we each left with yarn to knit it. Once I got home I downloaded the pattern and immediately cast on.

Two of my siblings, both brothers, have died. Here I am, on the far right, with my remaining siblings.

I was the last of the six children; my oldest brother was eighteen when I was born. Here are Eldon, Shirley, Roberta, and me.

Of course we had to stop at "our windmill." This windmill still sits on the property where my parents' farm was located. The farm itself has fallen into disrepair since being sold.

I spent a lot of time playing in the windmill; my mother never objected to my climbing the circular stairway to the top, but she never failed to caution me not to go out onto the porch.

The windmill was built in 1905 and was used to pump water for a few years. My parents purchased the dairy farm in the late 1920's, after moving to Maine from New Brunswick, but the windmill was never again used for its original purpose.

We often saw tourists stop to take a photo of the windmill. It is a rather unexpected sight in the middle of Maine farm country! The windmill is on the National Register of Historic Places as the "Bailey Farm Windmill." Apparently the Bailey family originally owned it. If you do a google search of Bailey Farm Windmill, you'll find it. During WWII, the windmill was used as a lookout tower for enemy planes. Townspeople took turns standing watch in the windmill.

It was good, as always, to get back to my hometown and to see family members.

Now, the moment you've been waiting for: my sweet potato vine update:

After my last post, explaining my latest experiment, I grew a little worried. I read a few responses on one instructional website claiming that the responders had attempted to grow sweet potato vines, but the potatoes refused to send out roots and shoots.

You'd better believe I started meticulously inspecting my sweet potato daily, if not twice daily. I'm happy to report that as of this morning, on Day #7 of its being set in water, there are distinct signs of roots developing. I yanked the potato out of the water a few minutes ago, in fact, to show you the little white emerging roots. Can you see them? I expect next week's Sweet Potato Vine Report will reveal even more evident progress.

I've got high hopes

Perhaps they're high, apple pie-in-the-sky hopes, but I won't know unless I try.

I've read at many online sites that starting sweet potato vines from a sweet potato is easy.

Yesterday after going to Merserveys' Farm for several six-packs of pansies, I stopped at Hannaford Supermarket and chose one firm and robust looking sweet potato.

It set me back exactly $1.

I brought it home, went down to the basement for a wide-mouth quart canning jar, and filled the jar with water.

I then took the unsuspecting sweet potato and gently inserted four toothpicks around its circumference about 2/3 of the way "up."

With the pointy end placed in the jar, I now had a sweet potato primed and ready to grow some shoots.

If all goes according to plan, I'll be able to divide the potato shoots, each with new roots attached, and plant them in potting soil.
















I'm hoping to end up with several of these. Isn't that sweet potato vine a sight to behold? I purchased this one last spring at a greenhouse and thoroughly enjoyed it all summer.

As you can see, it tried to sneak into the house to live with us permanently.

I've read online that sweet potato leaves can be tossed into salads. Who knew? I didn't. I also read accounts of grandmothers, years ago, who grew sweet potato vines as houseplants.

I see several possibilities emerging from my high hopes.

Surely spring is coming

 

It's 45° here this afternoon. That's better than 15°, I suppose, but it's not as good as 70°. Seventy degrees is what I'm dreaming of. Maybe we'll see it in another week or so. There are signs of spring, nonetheless:

Today, for instance, a large flock (25-30) of Bohemian waxwings arrived in our crabapple tree. They've spent the day grabbing leftover crabapples, flying elsewhere to eat them, then flying back for more.  I always enjoy seeing the waxwings arrive, even though they stay only briefly to strip our crabapple tree of fruit, refuse to say so much as a thank-you, and move on.

My little pots of basil at the kitchen window are doing well. I took this photo two weeks ago. Today the seedlings are looking a little more plentiful and healthy. That's cinnamon you see sprinkled on the top of the soil. Cinnamon, I've read, will help protect the tender seedlings from damping off.

More basil. These cuttings I'm rooting from my basil of last summer. It wintered well on my kitchen window ledge, so I took some cuttings to root, just in case the seedlings above are a disappointment.

Coleus! Last late spring I bought a coleus plant at a nursery and kept it on the back deck all summer. I hadn't had a coleus for years, and I enjoyed it so much. It grew into a large, lush plant. I wintered it over in our front hallway, and recently took cuttings of it. The first cuttings I placed in water to root, but then I read that coleus plants root well directly in the soil, so the remaining cuttings are sitting in soil and seem to be doing well.

I can't wait to see the back deck alive with all kinds of plants in a little over one more month.

While waiting for spring to arrive, I've been knitting a couple of "Tamarugo" hats. This first one I shared with you in my last blog post. The pattern is quick and super easy. For both hats I used odds and ends of leftover yarn. I guess (I hope) that's not too obvious in the finished products.

Spring will get here, I'm sure. The daffodils are budded; the forsythia is coming into bloom; and, as I said, the Bohemian waxwings arrived today. Things are looking up.

White world/colorful knitting

It's snowing again today. It's cold, too. Last week we had temperatures in the high 60's and even low 70's ; today it's in the 20's.

At left are my poor crocuses and daffodils. Enough said.

I came across some clever ideas for using odds and ends of leftover yarn while browsing Ravelry recently.

This is the Little Coffee Bean cardigan, a design by Elizabeth Smith and a free pattern on Ravelry.

I used three colors of DKwool/acrylic blends for this cardigan. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, so I went down a needle size and ended up with a sweater about 3-6 month size.

I bought the yarn for this hat, "Fun Baby Hat," while in Victoria, BC, last September. The rich, varied colors in the skein caught my eye.

The pattern, which came with the skein of yarn, is designed by Natalie Kuehn. The yarn is Adriafil Knitcol, a DK weight. I had fun knitting this little hat because the pattern is quick and easy and the colors change frequently.

 Here's another Little Coffee Bean. I had several small, leftover skeins of Berroco Comfort worsted weight and Lion Brand Cotton Ease, also worsted weight. I selected a lime green forest green, bright blue, and purple and went to town. This cardigan will fit a 12-months child.

And finally, a Tamarugo hat, by Anna Hintikka. This is another free pattern on Ravelry, and it's another enjoyable knit. I wasn't sure I'd have enough brown yarn for the entire hat, so I mixed in some jade at random intervals. This hat will be a donation to a winter clothing drive this coming fall.

Actually it would come in handy today for someone's chilly head.

Maine in April

 Yup, that's fresh snow.

 Yup, it's April 3.

Yup, those are crocuses in bloom to the right of the closest tree.




Whatever!