This and That in the First Week of April

Puffy cumulus clouds on the horizon and above the band of blue spoke of welcome rain coming. This photo was taken yesterday while walking around the Bog; as I look outside my window now, rain is dripping down. I can almost hear the dry ground slurping it up. The earthworms will be happy, too. 
  

A sharp wind blew, but once we were in the shelter of the trees in the Bog, it eased and the warmth of the sun penetrated instead of the chill. A flash of red caught my eye and we saw a very busy Downy Woodpecker drilling into a rather thin branch. 

A bit farther along bright robins clustered in a tree just beginning to leaf out. In the distance, winter skeletons of trees show clouds of green haze around them in that delicate, yet bright shade of early leaves. 

Lemons are plentiful in the grocery store just now, so a few came home with me to make Lemon Curd. I store it in the freezer in small jars. It's good on scones, toast, in tarts layered with fresh berries (soon they'll show up, too), or eaten by the spoonful. It's easy to make and here's the recipe I use. I adapted the method to ensure that it turns out reliably. 

Lemon Curd
1/2 cup butter (the recipe says to use unsalted, but I rebel)
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (I used 2 regular lemons and 1 Meyer lemon)
3 Tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
pinch of salt (omitted because of using salted butter)
6 large egg yolks

Melt the butter in a double-boiler set over barely simmering water.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. This is when you would add the salt, as well.

Add the egg yolks and whisk until smooth.

Place the double-boiler over the heat again, and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens. Make sure to scrape the corners of the pot well as you whisk. I occasionally run a silicone spatula around the edges to ensure that all of the mixture gets whisked. The mixture is done when it coats a wooden spoon and you can draw a line through it with another spoon.

Pour the lemon curd through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Let cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally. Refrigerate, covered, until ready serve. OR pour into small jars (I used the half cup ones) and freeze.

Lemon Curd will keep for a month in the refrigerator and much longer (several months) in the freezer.

On Saturday morning Tim saw a flash of feathers swoop across the back garden before disappearing through the hedge. All the birds at the feeders scattered. The feathers flashed again and alighted on a fence so that we could identify it as a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. We don't often see them quite so low to the ground and wondered if there were some little critters in our garden that piqued his interest. He hung around for awhile before flying off again. It took awhile before the little birds felt brave enough to risk the feeder again. 

I picked a little bouquet from my garden - hyacinths, muscari, a couple of frilly daffodils, and candy tuft. The green filler is lemon balm, now showing up everywhere!

Today in Foods class the students made chocolate cupcakes. It's such an easy recipe and it always turns out. Today, one group of students added 1/4 CUP of salt in place of 1/4 teaspoon. Oh my. I took a little taste and quickly disposed of it. Wretched! The girls (it was a group of girls) took it well, laughing about their mistake, and other students shared their cupcakes with them, so they at least got to have a treat. 

Such a mistake reinforces to me how inept many young people are in the kitchen. I would have expected them to question that amount of salt in any dish, but especially baking. I am frequently surprised at how many students do not know the basics of cooking anything. By Grade 8 I was cooking entire meals, and there are still a few who do that, but it's not the majority any more. Life skills like these are so important, I think. 

On the other side, to be fair, another student came up to show me a photo (on her phone) of a chocolate mousse cake she had made for her grandfather's birthday. She had decorated it with fresh fruit and it did look lovely. A cake to be proud of. 

I'd better get this posted before the second week of April is gone! I hope Spring (or Autumn) is showing up for you wherever you live. I've seen photos of April snowfalls that would be a bit discouraging. 

Happy April days to you! 

Of Snowdrops, Lemon Pie, and the Moon

"Anyone who thinks that gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year, for gardening begins in January, with the dream." 

Josephine Neuse

Unlike most of Canada, we on the west coast are experiencing an extremely mild winter. So mild that yesterday I went out and did a little gardening. Just some tidying up of pots - my geraniums are still green and I cut them back as they were looking scraggly. As I pottered about inspecting here and there, I noticed sharp pointed green shoots jutting from the earth, soon to be flowering bulbs. Snowdrops glow bright against the dark soil; no snow here this year. I picked a bunch for the kitchen windowsill. 

On this afternoon's walk around Rithet's Bog, I took a couple of photos and then my battery died. Poor planning on my part. It was lovely to see blue sky. The wind was sharp and I was glad for a jacket I could zip up to keep my neck warm. 

Home just in time to enjoy a piece of the Lemon Sour Cream pie I referred to in last week's post. A regular-sized piece for him, a narrow piece for me. How delicious it was!

Lemons and tulips - surely spring can't be far away!

Tonight we witnessed the Lunar Eclipse of the Wolf Moon. My camera struggled to focus, but managed to capture a few shots of the progression. I balanced the camera on the roof of my car and noticed that frost was already beginning to form. It's going to be chilly tonight. Did you see the eclipse?

Linking to Mosaic Monday, hosted by Angie of Letting Go of the Bay Leaf. 

Yellow is IN!

Sunny yellow. Not my favourite colour, but very welcome these days. 

I peeked under the cloth covering the lemon tree, wondering how the tree had fared during our longer and colder winter. Such delight to see these lemons that slowly ripened in the cold and darkness. They are smaller than usual, but I noticed blossoms and little green lemons on the tree, as well. After picking these, I covered it up again until May or June when the days are reliably warmer.

Two bunches of tight daffodil buds came home with me last weekend. They've opened into a cheerful bouquet for the kitchen table. 

As I look out the kitchen window, I see these yellow beauties, miniature daffodils, nodding their pretty heads. Spring is well on her way!

More yellow! The forsythia is getting ready to burst into gold.

I cut some long branches of forsythia for a blue vase from Spain, made from recycled glass, that I recently found. I expect the buds will open this weekend. They don't last long indoors, but are so pretty for a short while. 

What's the IN colour around your place these days?

Linking, for the last time, with Five on Friday, hosted by Amy of Love Made My Home. I've gotten to know quite a number of blogs through this link up, blogs that I now follow. Thank you, Amy!

Lemons on Sunlit Sunday

A week ago the sun shone and we worked in the yard. I took a peek under the lemon tree cover and was pleased to see ripe lemons. We picked 2 dozen and covered the tree again for another few months. 

The Lemon Dessert cookbook was a Christmas gift from a friend.

This week the rain poured down, and I did a little puttering in the kitchen. Since my husband prefers lemon to chocolate, I made a batch of lemon curd. 

And then what to do with the lemon curd? A batch of macarons seemed just the thing.

I should have known better than to attempt macarons on such a rainy day. They turned out a little flat, without the cute "feet" characteristic of a successful macaron.

But they taste scrumptious, filled with lemon curd and raspberry jam. Lemons, lemon curd, and macarons certainly brighten up the greyness outside. 

Linking with Sunlit Sunday, hosted by Karen of My Little Home and Garden. 

Hello There!

Here's what the lemon tree looks like when it's cold. The Christmas lights come on and keep it toasty warm. I snapped this from the dining room window (bit of blind in the corner) on a frosty morning this past week.

Next to the lemon tree is an apricot tree which also needs 100% rain protection in our climate. In front, raspberry canes. I like our moderately productive little yard.

Those lemons have come in very handy while I've been battling influenza. Lemon tea with raw honey from the Hutterite colony in Alberta is my go-to drink.

Yesterday I returned to work. Bad idea. Teaching means talking and talking is very hard on a throat. After a couple of really ugly coughing fits at school, I booked off the rest of the week. That gives me four more days to recover. It's coming, albeit slowly. 
 

The person who thought up combining Aloe and tissue should be awarded a medal. The difference to a sore nose is such relief. And isn't that a pretty colored box? It looks like spring and coordinates so well with the UK Country Living March edition. 

This morning I visited my doctor and have had energy to throw in a couple of loads of laundry. I have a few old magazines I'm going through and tore these pages from one, then put them on my fridge door - an idea gleaned from Mary.

Now it's time to put the clean sheets on the bed and clean a bathroom or two. It's good to be feeling better, but as one of my friends said on Facebook, "We just aren't the same Shell (name of town in Ecuador) gals we used to be. We're grammas now!" I guess that means it takes a little longer to recover. Sigh. I won't over do the house cleaning! I'll save some energy for visiting and commenting on blogs.
 

Winter Lemons

With all the snow in the east, I'm a little hesitant to show these photos for fear it might look like bragging. I'm not, really, but I'm amazed! For several weeks now I've noticed, from the dining room window, round yellow shapes behind the gardening fabric protecting the lemon tree. 
On Sunday afternoon, a warm, sunny day, we decided to take a peek.
 

Just look at that harvest! The lemon "farmer" looks happy, doesn't he? These lemons set their fruit in August or September and have been ripening all "winter." There is more fruit that will be picked in a few months. In May we'll remove the gardening fabric and new blooms will form and be pollinated. Lemon trees are amazing!
 

They smell wonderful and brighten up the kitchen, too. 29 lemons. Grown in Canada! Let's see, shall I make Lemon Meringue Pie, Lemon Loaf, Lemon Souffle or ...? What would you make with fresh lemons?

On another note, I've sent emails to those who wanted to take part in the magazine swap. If you have not received your email, please let me know.

Lemons, Fleur de lis and Daisies

Have you ever cooked with preserved lemons? They are often used in Moroccan foods and add a salty tartness to dishes. They are easy to make at home and I used some of our home-grown lemons to make a few small jars yesterday. It's a simple matter of layering lemon wedges and kosher salt, squishing the lemons down until the juice covers them. I added a bit more lemon juice to make certain everything was covered. Seal it up and let it sit for a month or so. I keep the jar in the fridge after that and it lasts at least a year.

While I was working with the lemons, I also made some lemon finishing salt, which consisted of grating the rind of a couple of lemons and rubbing it into sea salt. I dried the mixture for about 20 minutes at the lowest setting on my oven - 200 degrees, let it cool and put it into jars. I think it will be good on salmon and other fish dishes.  

 In the spring I painted the little lavatory off the laundry room. It was a dismal beige and now it's a beautiful green/blue color called Vienna Lake which is hard to see in this photo. Does the name of a paint color influence your decision? It does mine, so I've learned to cover the names while picking a color. 

The fleur de lis canvas was a simple idea. I drew the design on a folded sheet of paper - just one half of it, then cut the whole thing out and traced it onto a white painted canvas. I used a black Sharpie to color in the design, rather than paint, just because it was handy. It also made it easy to get an even line on the edges of the design. Someday we'll replace the vanity and fixtures, but this will have to do for now.
 

The past couple of days have been deliciously warm. I'm gardening in the early morning or evening to avoid the heat. These daisies are flourishing just now, but I wonder how long they will last.

It's the season for summer meals - salads of all kinds, and some kind of meat on the grill. Simple and satisfying. Thank you for all the ideas for flavoring water that you shared in the last post, and for your kind comments. I'm looking forward to fruity flavored water!

What's keeping you busy these days? Are you laying low trying to stay cool or feeling energetic and getting a lot accomplished?

When Life Gives You Lemons

Lemon trees grew on our property in Ecuador. We harvested them year round, for lemon trees can have blossoms, baby fruit and mature fruit all at the same time. During some seasons more lemons grew than at others. We loved having fresh lemons all the time (and avocados, too.) Sometimes lemons would fall to the ground and get chewed up in the lawnmower. What a lovely scent filled the air.

A couple of years ago we discovered a fruit grower who grew lemons here in Canada. Tim thought it would be a wonderful thing to have our own lemon tree. We chose a south-facing spot against a short stone wall. Tim built a wooden shelter - just a wall, really, to protect the lemon tree from the cold wind. Last spring we planted the tree, watered, fertilized it and watched the bees buzzing around the blossoms. Tiny green lemons formed. Would they have the chance to ripen before the cold? No. But our fruit grower expert told us that we would be picking lemons in April. Really?

Tim draped the tree with an old string of outdoor Christmas lights wired to a thermostat. We covered the tree with two layers of an agricultural fabric in September. Many mornings I looked out the kitchen window to see a colorful glow coming from the wrapped lemon tree. The lights come on when the temperature hits freezing and their heat protects the tree. 

Last week Tim removed one layer of fabric. Yesterday I was in the yard and noticed a tear in the remaining layer. I peeked in then went for my camera.
 

Lemons! All the cosseting resulted in lots of lemons. This sneak peek was all I could get through the little tear. I'm dreaming of fresh lemonade, lemon meringue pie, guacamole, lemon bars and more. Tim thinks we should have a big celebration or at least a little ceremony. I think a lemon-themed party might be fun.

What do you like to make with lemons? 

Yellow and Orange

Pinks, blues and whites are the colors I'm attracted to most in my garden. But here and there some warmer tones have crept in. The lilies above will likely disappear next year when the new shed is built. For now, I'll take moderate enjoyment from their ruffled petals and exuberant color. 
 

Yellow is up a few notches from orange on my color preference list, but still not very high. Marigolds, however, make such great borders and keep harmful bugs away as well. I have a few of them lining the lemon and apricot tree bed.
 

 

Last summer we planted a Meyer lemon tree. We are right on the edge of their growing region, Our fruit tree provider told us that they thrive against a south-facing shelter. So we built one. In addition, there's a string of old-fashioned Christmas tree lights strung through the branches, attached to a thermostat. In winter we cover the tree with an agricultural fabric. When the temperature drops to just above zero, the thermostat triggers a switch and voila - the light bulbs keep the lemon tree just warm enough. We knew the morning temperature by looking out and seeing the glow of colored lights under the fabric.

The lemons are growing - itty bitty now, but bigger than they were. Some don't make it; they turn yellow before their time and drop off. But those larger green ones will hopefully give us juicy lemons before fall. We'll see. That's a yellow sight I'm looking forward to seeing in my garden.

What are your favorite colors in a garden? Do you favor the cooler shades or the warm ones?