Never give up! Never Surrender!

After sleeping 19 hours yesterday, i was fed up with being sick. We are all fed up with being sick. So we took our orange juice outside and did springtime things. The mulch with the sticks poking out are our much beleagured berry bushes.

sick

two out of three of us are sick. i am holding out, but it isn't pretty. you will be spared pictures, for now.

three days of rain

It has been raining solidly for three days, and entertainment is scarce on the ground. our front yard is under three inches of water and the soil is so saturated i fear i will never plant anything. my perception of New England weather in entirely different this year with the garden in the works.

MAPLE SUNDAY!

delicious! the annual celebration of the sugaring season. we go to my favorite local sugar shack for maple candy, maple syrup, maple creame and the smell of sap cooking down. this year we brought home dark maple syrup (it is more strongly flavored), maple cream and we bought candy. that didn't make it home at all.

it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup!

Next year, My Guy hopes to tap a few trees for sap to make homebrew.

Too Cold

We are in the middle of a cold snap that is too severe even to have protected seedlings out during the daytime. but we are determined to take advantage of the sunshine. behold the Maine Red Hot Dog.

Springtime Snow

we woke up to snow this morning and it has snowed off and on all day.

The playset was built by My Guy and Slick out of cedar trees from the garden clearing. if you look really really closely, you can see the raspberries and blackberries struggling miserably in the left-hand side of the pic.

The picture showing the wood shed also features our plum "orchard" of two trees. They are planted super close to each other to help with pollination. The far tree is a Kaga Plum and the closer is a Gracious Plum. Both are very pretty when they bloom!

Sprouts

Planted on the 18th, the broccoli and cabbages haven't wasted any time! The basil and the hyssop are showing as well

Outside Baby

Something for The Miss to drag through the mud while the more retiring dolls stay indoors.

First Day of Spring

Everything moved so quickly today that i couldn't snap a good picture. Here is a pic of Miss Critterpants doing what she does best, running.

Miss Critterpants and i went to the farmer's market for the beginning of MAPLE WEEK. it is the celebration of all things maple and good, culminating next weekend in MAINE MAPLE SUNDAY. All the local sugar shacks are open to the public for tastings and sales and general deliciousness made with real maple syrup.

the Farmer's Market celebrated this wonderful holiday with maple sugar cotton candy and maple sugared popcorn. Miss Critterpants ate her weight in maple popcorn.

Then off to the Library to meet AuntieE, UncleA and D-Bit and BabyR where there was an ice cream social with maple toppings and fresh jam. There was a maple syrup and candy making demo, but the girls were about to tear the place apart from all the sugar pumping through their veins. We beat a quick retreat to the nearest playground where they ran and ran and ran. i am exhausted.

Spring!

Spring has come early to Western Maine this year. Today i raked the yard, dug another flowerbed, started seeds, moved a massive rock and spent a good chunk of time in the newly hung hammock and lying on the deck looking up at the sky.