Green Wellies

Rhubarb runneth over

What do you do with a giant patch of rhubarb?

You pick some and make rhubarb nectar!  I've been making this each spring since the kids were young, if I've had enough rhubarb on hand.  This year's rhubarb is the biggest I've ever grown and I put it down to the gallons of comfrey 'tea' that I brewed last year and fed to the plants.  It was waist high...a record for me.

I got the ingredients ready and yes, that's white sugar, but I only use a fraction of what the original pioneer recipe calls for...

Everything is chopped and thrown into a large pot of water with cinnamon and nutmeg (I'm going to try fresh ginger with the next batch)...

Then it's simmered for half an hour until the rhubarb becomes mush...

The next part involves lining a colander with a large piece of cloth, pouring in the stewed mixture, lifting the edges of the cloth and letting the juice drain out.  I couldn't manage to hold the cloth and take a photo at the same time.  The juice is then returned to the pot and the sugar is added.  Now the concentrate is ready to be bottled...

The colour never ceases to amaze and delight me...rhubarb pink and nectar of the gods.

An inside day...

Drat!  I woke up to rain this morning and after days of hot, glorious sunshine and hours spent working in the garden, I found I had inside time on my hands.  I decided to make my second batch of paneer...a soft cheese used in Indian cuisine.  Gwen made some last week and following in her footsteps, I tried my own and it didn't take long for it to disappear.  I wanted to use some herbs from the garden (any excuse to get outside) and when I was mentally checking off which ones were ready, that great Simon and Garfunkel song popped into my head, "Are you going to Scarborough Fair," so I picked parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme...

I chopped the herbs and gave the lemon a squeeze...

I got the cloth and colander ready.  I haven't been able to find cheesecloth anywhere in town, so I picked up a cheesy dishcloth from the dollar store and will have to make do with that until I find the real thing...

Once the milk came to an almost boil, I added the herbs and lemon juice, poured the lot into the cloth to drain the whey from the curds and set a bowl of water on top as a cheese press...

An hour later and I had my very own untraditional paneer, the Scarborough Fair kind of cheese...

Time in the garden is time well spent

There was a misty rain this morning and then the sun came out and so did I.  I've been working on the side yard, which was a narrow strip between the cottage and my neighbours' fence.  The idea to transform it into tomato alley was small to begin with, but today, I took down a fence bit that divided it in half, laid more landscape carpet and covered it with cedar mulch.  Now I have twice the space to grow tomatoes, patty pan squash and zucchini, with hopes that the deer don't discover it.

My neighbours found a pile of enormous tea tins behind a restaurant in Vancouver and gave me two of them.  I hammered about 20 holes in the bottom of each, filled them with soil and they'll be recycled as plant pots for more tomatoes.

The hop vines seem to love the climbing rig I made for them and are working their way skyward.

The potatoes that I planted in three huge black pots are just peeking through.  I know I won't get a bumper crop, but just the thought of a meal with my own spuds is good enough for me.

When I open the back door, I'm greeted with the heady scent of sweet cicely blossoms.  The plants are shoulder height and I'm always amazed at how quickly they grow...like Jack in the Beanstalk quick.  The little bleeding heart plant is one that I discovered under drooping cedar branches, dug up and transplanted.  It's only ever managed the strength to produce one or two hearts, but this spring, it put on a surge of energy and looks like it just might survive as a real bush after all.

Even on a dull day, this shines like the sun...

And at the bottom of the driveway, this greets me when I pull in...

I had fun playing in the garden today and the forecast is for warm and sunny days ahead, so there will be more of the same in store for me tomorrow.   

Round and round

ROUND ONE: It rained heavily all day, so I couldn't go out and play in the garden.  I decided to play in the kitchen instead.  Taking inspiration from Gwen, I made paneer, a firm Indian cheese.  Breaking with tradition and wanting an excuse to use chives that are growing in leaps and bounds, I added some to the milk just before it reached a boil and ended up with chive paneer.  Instead of a perfect round, mine looks more like a hat...it took on the shape of the colander and cloth as it was draining...

ROUND TWO: I found a few more pieces of beach glass to add to my bowl of fragile hearts...

ROUND THREE: Even though I've lugged home tons of rocks, there's always certain ones that call out to me and find their way into my pockets...

And not round, but worthy of a haiku...

heart rock on the sand

the beach wears you on its sleeve

shaped by tossing waves

Busy world

Life has never been busier and that's a good thing.  First of all, thanks to everyone who emailed to check up on me and to make sure that I hadn't fallen off the face of the earth.  I'm still here and the only thing that's kept me from writing on a regular basis has been other commitments to family, friends, doing respite and now that spring is here in all its glory, the garden.  I had my grandson here on two different occasions and we had a fabulous time together.  He talks a mile a minute, is interested in everything and loves to hang out with his nanny on the beach, wearing his own version of green wellies...

Casper, Indy and I walk the beach twice a day and lately, we've been heading out to hike some trails on those weekends when I have a foster child here for respite.  Until we decided it might be a good idea to read the map properly, one 2 kilometer hike ended up being a 5 kilometer trek...we got lost, but the birdsong, the masses of Dutchman's Breeches and the woodland sunshine made every step a delight...

The garden is coming along in leaps and bounds.  The rhubarb has become a bouquet of mass proportions and will soon be ready to be transformed into bottles of nectar...

The lovage is knee high to a donkey and I should have transplanted it last fall, as it's threatening to take over this tiny bed...

Taking inspiration from one of my flickr contacts, graygoosie, I'm in the process of making a narrow strip of the side yard between my place and the neighbour's fence into a tomato patch.  Because it's a sun trap, the weeds were prolific and it was an odd spot to get into with the weed-eater.  I dug up weeds, laid landscape carpet, covered the lot with cedar mulch, moved in an old blue bench and planted tomatoes in large pots.  It's another attempt to foil the deer.  They ate the flowering tops off of all my tomatoes last summer and I'm hoping that they won't wander into such a confined space.  Time will tell. 

The side of the house looks patchy.  It's been power-washed in preparation for a new coat of paint...

Using an old tap that my sister gave me, I fashioned a new spout for the front fountain.  The tub is from an old wringer washer, so the tap just seems to suit it better than the bamboo one I had before.  Trying to explain to the men at the hardware store the parts I needed, became a lesson in patience.  I could see it in my mind's eye, but they couldn't!  We managed to work things out in the end...

And while I garden to my heart's content, the dogs are kept busy chewing on bones.  Casper has his special technique...

Indy has his...

If all goes well tomorrow, I'm heading to as many blogs as I can to see what everyone else has been up to.  It's good to be back on board!