Yesterday we spent much of the day outside. I can’t remember the last time we did that and it was simply wonderful. We got a lot done around the yard (and I spotted these little candy tuft blooming.) The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and it was lovely out there. Jeff cut down a few little trees popping up in odd places by the garden. I got a good start pruning the plum tree. There’s still more to do, but it looks much happier. My arms got really sore holding the cutters above my head! It was a good workout. And when I got tired of lifting my arms above my head, I cut the “water shoots” growing around the base of the tree. (By the way, does anyone have any recommendations for good books about caring for fruit trees?)

 Jeff has been harvesting greens for us out of the garden. We’ve been enjoying homegrown kale and collards sauteed with breakfast and fresh watercress in our salads for lunch.

 And since we’ve been craving fresh greens so much lately, Jeff started making sprouts again. Bless him! They are so good and we can’t get enough of them. He’s been making them with a mix of seeds he saved from our garden. Jeff said he wants to eat “a bowl full of sprouts a day.” I would agree with that. Last week, he packed a snack basket for Bracken for our snack time at the Waldorf school (while I gave Bracken a bath the night before, suddenly realizing he hadn’t had one yet and it was nearly bedtime) and included a generous helping of sprouts. Bracken had fun finding those in his basket.

 In celebration of the beautiful day I got out our drawer in the kitchen where we keep our seeds. We started looking through them to see what seeds we need to buy this year. We’ve saved so many seeds, that we won’t need to buy many, which is such a blessing. Planted so far: lettuce, chard, and parsley. 

Much more planting to do!

It’s amazing what some fresh greens and time spent outside can do for the spirit, isn’t it?