Tuesday, April 24

Note to Michele: A Walk in the Woods

So here is my lettuce which is the same variety that you have going to seed. This variety is quite hardy as it survived the winter here. While we did have a mild winter, it still dropped below freezing so I'm amazed these survived. Mine show no signs of going to seed so I'm curious to see what we get from them. I believe these are the cinnamon lettuce which came from Baker Creek Seeds.
My son planted his blueberry bushes right before the cold rainy spell we had a few days ago. I checked on them today and sadly I couldn't find anything left of them other than some twigs not even worth photographing. So here is a photo of one of our young blackberry bushes. These are native bushes which we have allowed to sprout. They provide us with a good amount of berries each summer.
Many years ago, I had gardens filled with lupine and each summer they were beautiful. I don't know what happened to my lupine, but gradually they died off. So, last year I collected some seeds from a field and sowed them. Here are the young lupine. They probably won't bloom this year, but maybe next year.
This is my view behind my house. I like to take little walks in these woods every day. This time of year things are starting to sprout, little ferns are uncurling and a green mist is developing on the forest floor replacing the brown carpet of dead leaves. This forest is mostly white pine and eastern hemlock with a few oaks.
This little plant is wintergreen. It stays green all winter long. It has a wonderful smell of wintergreen and can be used to make tea. The french called it little tea of the woods. When the colonists boycotted British tea long ago, they drank winterberry tea instead. This plant has many medicinal uses. In a future post, I'll show you the photographs of the flowers and berries it produces.
And here is a view looking up into the forest canopy. Gray squirrels often make nests almost at the very top of the white pines. Once the babies are born and out of the nest, we often are treated to the young squirrels chasing each other through the tree tops.
And as usual, I was followed by a cat. Just Miss Natalie today.
We had a nice walk together.

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