The trillium flowers have finished blooming here. I had to share a picture with you, like I do every year, because they are such a magical sight to come across in the woods. The first time I ever saw them was when I moved to Oregon, and I have been delighted by them ever since. We admired the little, yellow wood violets on our walks too. Usually we see a few in the woods this time of year, but there were so many more blooming this year than we have ever seen before. They must be happy with the weather combination we’ve been having. The frogs are happy as well. There’s a whole group of them in the small pond out front and hearing them sing every spring is one of my very favorite sounds!

I have been craving greens, as well as bitter and spicy, which perfectly aligns with the spring offerings around our yard. My body is so grateful this time of year for the fresh greens coming in, I can’t get enough of them. Jeff and I have both harvested several colanders of watercress and nettles. The watercress is so delicious on salads, and I like a handful of it, fresh, on top of stir fries too. What a zest of flavor it has. Jeff broadcasts watercress seeds all over the place so we can enjoy lots of it every spring. I made our family a delicious soup with homemade chicken broth and the fresh nettles we harvested. I drink nettles tea regularly, with the dried nettles, but the fresh nettles are a treat this time of year. All our garden beds are full of greens, and I’m also loving the red mustard under stir fries so it’s slightly wilted, but still has it’s spicy flavor. It’s beautiful too.

Spring is so busy. There has been lots of seed planting, lots of transplanting, lots of harvesting (so many greens!), and lots of projects around the place. Our spring was warming up (we had a day that got to 79 degrees here), and then earlier this month we had a cold snap with temperatures similar to the cold snap we had in February! Yikes. That was a huge temperature change for the garden in a short period of time! We were nervous about the blossoms on our fruit trees, as we had a few days getting pummeled with hail, but thankfully they all look like they managed just fine. (Some of the apple blossoms are pictured above.) As I write this, there is rain, rain, rain outside. This rainy spring means we haven’t had to start watering the garden yet, the rain has been doing it for us. We’ve been working on projects outside until the downpours get too heavy, then take breaks, and resume again. What’s your spring weather been like? Busy with projects? Planting anything?