Garden Work, and Soup

62°f/17°C this morning. Thunderstorm moved through quickly, now windy and feels colder than the temperature indicates. Going back down into the 30's tonight.

Daffydowndillies!

The past few days of yard work are catching up with me. Today I feel like a slug, only managing to make breakfast (pancakes, sausage,  and fruit salad), and put on a pot of soup for lunch or dinner, whichever we decide. This is a new recipe I found online, sweet potato and lentil soup, and I have to say it is tasting pretty delicious. In my usual way, I had to substitute heavily--dried oregano and parsley instead of fresh,  chicken broth instead of veggie broth, canned tomatoes instead of fresh, frozen creasy greens instead of spinach, paprika and Chipotle powder in place of smoked paprika, and canned yams someone brought here at Christmas for fresh. I figure my result will taste about the same in the end. You can find the recipe here. If I can conjure up some energy I will make cornbread to go with the soup. Big if.

Yesterday we got 20 more bags of mulch spread. We have a system: We leave the bags in the truck, and Larry pulls them out one at a time into the wheelbarrow, cuts them open, and takes them to wherever we are working. I tell him where to dump it,  and spread the mulch, taking care around the plants that were already up. We had put down the chicken wire first, of course. 

If you are wondering why we don't buy bulk mulch, I'll tell you-- neither of us are up to shoveling that much mulch. We can handle the bags; even I can get them from truck to wheelbarrow. It costs more to buy in bags, but for us it is the doable option.

We were working fast because rain was predicted to start by 11, but the rain and storms and high winds never struck here. So I continued working outside, cleaning up and mulching the drift roses, and picking up, putting away, etc. Pretty tired but satisfied by evening.

Larry is chomping at the bit for the molly moochers and ramps to come up, but it's still a little early for those wild treats. Which reminded me of this:

Right now, I'm listening to Mountain Stage and dunking that biscotti in coffee, with my feet up. I must say, it feels pretty good.

Take care, friends.

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