A garden for the birds and bees

A work in progress.

We have this unused area of space right outside the dining room windows.  When we moved here there was a massive, ancient rose bush planted there but it was killed by a hard winter.  So there's a patch of dirt there where we stuck a bird feeder which got filled occasionally.

This year is the first time that I've kept the feeders full all of the time.  And we've have so many birds come to it that we can't believe it.

Here are some google pictures of the birds that we as seeing every day now: gold finches, Baltimore orioles, rose breasted grosbeaks and indigo buntings.  Lord knows I'm not feeding anything special, it's just the wild bird mix from TSC but we're getting so many birds.  I've never seen an indigo bunting up close like this before.  He's here every day and  spends most of his day parked on one of the feeders.  I've named him Bernie.

I got the idea to turn this patch of ground into a bird/pollinator garden with a bird bath and plants that would attract and feed the visitors. 

So here is the space we started with.  

That bright blue dot on the side of the right feeder is Bernie.

Here's a rough sketch of what I'm going for:

I dug a bunch of different daylillies from my parent's house along with a peony bush. For the bees and butterflies I'm planting yarrow, hyssop, cone flowers, bee balm and borage.  For caterpillars; milkweed (for monarchs) and parsley (Swallowtail butterflies).  Canna and salvia for the hummingbirds.   In the gaps between perennials I've put wildflower seeds and buckwheat.

The youngest supervises.

Here is some of it laid out.  The perennials are all planted, parsley is growing under lights.  We're still waiting on some seeds to come in the mail and I need to find some milkweed to transplant.

We're all very excited about it.

Any suggestions for plants that bees and butterflies love?

Stupid effin' raccoons

It's spring.  They're back. Stupid effin' raccoons.

The one night I was late closing coops, the ONE NIGHT, they made off with two chickens.  There was nothing but a pile of feathers outside the coop. 

 Now, this is what greeted me this morning:

Where they tried to bust through the coop window.

My hand for scale.  I'm actually surprised that it wasn't a bloodbath out there this morning.  After they got bored with the chicken wire they tried to dig UNDER the small coop.

So I went out there today with a roll of 1/4 inch hardware cloth and staple gun and covered both of the windows.  

I found these right above my head  while I was busy stapling and hammering:

So now there's that to deal with. 

Welcome ducklings!

Well, this happened today.  I am so excited to have ducks here again.  This morning I asked my husband if he minded if we got a couple of ducklings.

He said, God bless him and I quote, "I don't care what you do."

He likes looking at them in the yard and really has no idea how many birds we have.

I practically skipped to Tractor Supply where all of the birds were on clearance.  Between the clearance price, my reward rebate and a coupon, I brought home 5 little ducklings for $2.97.

 

Look at those cute, fat little butts.  I mean, who could resist?

Blackberry vinegar shrub

A splash of shrub mixed with carbonated water.   The color is amazing.

Last month I got into the freezer and turned the remaining frozen berries into a vinegar shrub.  I used the same basic recipe from making the rhubarb shrub last spring.

1 lb fruit

1/2 c honey, 1/2 c sugar

1 c apple cider vinegar

For the fruit I had mostly blackberries, some currants and a few blueberries.

Here's the color in the bottle:

It absolutely tastes like fresh blackberries.  Unfortunately we don't have the sweetest blackberries here but I still like it a lot.  These vinegar shrubs are wonderful.  This one is almost gone but thankfully the rhubarb is really starting to come up so we can make another batch of that soon.

Banana bread

It's taken forever but we finally found a banana bread recipe that we're all happy with.  It's soft, airy, chewy and has a great banana flavor.

The oldest wanted to make something for lunch "with flour".  We ended up making sandwiches with the promise that we'd bake banana bread when we were done eating.  It's amazing how careful and good at following directions little people can be when they want to. 

It's from the Gold Medal flour website. 

We made one loaf and lots of mini-muffins.

Sunset

Spring flowers

Flowers are everywhere and thank goodness.  It's been a long, cold, wet time.

The April rains have come.  They're the best.  A beautiful rain with warm temperatures.

Here's the Cleveland Pear we planted when we first bought the house.  It's as tall as the power lines now.

Violets.

I have no idea what this flower is.  I remember planting it years ago and then being disappointed by how tiny the plant was when it bloomed.

The orange primrose was a gift when we bought the house.

One of the landscaping shrubs.  Bees love it. 

Some of the "clearance" bulbs planted last fall.

Here's another one.  It's lovely.

Grape hyacinth.  This week marks 4 years since my mother died.  I'm thinking of moving some of these up to the cemetery along with snow drops,  crocus, forget-me-nots and daffodils. The long-term goal being a perennial planting that would bloom from spring through fall.  Gardening was her passion and joy.  It seems neglectful, or worse, indifferent that I haven't planted around the headstone but honestly this is the first year I could even tolerate the thought of doing so without weeping. 

A sprig of rhododendron.

Trout cakes with dandelion & turkey egg noodles

Well, here it is.  The best part of trout season : a great meal that celebrates the start of spring.  

I cleaned my two trout, stuffed them with lime and baked them in the oven or half an hour.  Flaked the meat off and mixed it with egg, panko, flour, old bay and lime zest for the trout cakes.

What else said "spring"? My father's friend had been given a dozen turkey eggs that she passed on to me.   There were spring bunching onions growing in the garden, along with handfuls of dandelion in the yard. Garlic from the fall.

 

I sauteed some bacon, cooked the greens, onions and garlic in the fat. Made an alfredo type sauce with half n half, butter, cream cheese and a little whole grain mustard to cut the richness and brighten it.

Turkey egg turned into spaghetti noodles.

Here it is plated. The trout cakes were a bit bland, add herbs next time.  The pasta with dandelion was fantastic, we'll make this again soon.

Goodbye Nigel

I had to put Nigel down this morning.  He had been hanging on for a couple of days now. I really, really wish someone else could have done it for me so I didn't have to.

My sweet, sweet buddy.

He was loved by the ladies. 

Gentle with babies. 

And very handsome.  I really adored that guy.

He's buried out in the chicken yard. What a crummy morning.

It feels really lonely out there right now. I used to talk to him every day, twice a day. One sided conversations about the food, the weather, his plans for the day ("Nigel! Tell your ladies to lay some damn eggs!")  He would cock his head and watch me.

Farewell, friend. You are missed.

Opening day of trout season.

This is not a trout.

Saturday was the fist day of trout season, the un-official start to Spring around these parts. The day was just stunningly beautiful.  Warm weather, blue skies, fluffy clouds.  I was able to spend the morning fishing with my dad, his friend, my uncle and a very good friend of mine who was free that day.  I came home with two trout.  I also caught two of these grotesque things called red horse suckers.  I threw them back because they were hideous.  Then came home, googled them and found that they only live in very pure water and the general consensus is "ugly as hell but delicious and sweet, tastes like walleye."  Ugh! Live and learn.

The farm we fished at had about 30 other people fishing there that morning.  This little muskrat swam down the stream, walked along the shore, plopped himself down in the sun and just watched everyone as he ate grass.  I haven't seen a muskrat up close since I was little so this was a treat.  You could get within 10 feet of the thing.  There was also a mama Canada goose on a nest.

I came home as spent some time outside with the oldest who, surprised me with a bouquet of flowers he had picked all on his own.  My sweet little guy.

In the evening I went to a ladies night at one of the local social clubs with a new friend. I made my dad be our designated driver.  There was a little of this:

And a whole lotta this:

Leaving me feeling like this today:

Seriously. I woke up on the sofa fully dressed with a raging hangover and a cheese puff stuck to my shirt.

Guess what's fun to do hungover?  Filing taxes.  Cleaning fish.  I did have a fantastic time though.  Today we spent some time outside, I made homemade pasta to go with the trout.  It was a really good weekend overall.