May Day Hooray

Our friend Kris gifted us these "fancy" tulip bulbs a couple years back  I love them.  Especially the ruffly pink one.  I can get lost gazing into its heart. 4/20/2026

The month of May makes me happy.  It is my birthday month.  Flowers are blooming.  Birds are singing.  The garden is growing.  Summer is right around the corner.  May feels like the springiest month of Spring.  It brings a song to my heart.  I thought I'd share some springtime happenings around our place.

A view from the north end of the garden, looking back towards the house.  The two beds closest to me were recently top-dressed with compost. 5/11/2026

It is amazing how quickly the garden goes from looking empty to being lined with wee green plants.  What a magical transformation. In addition to our classic crops (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, peas, cabbage, garlic, onion, artichoke, strawberries, raspberries), Matt's special pet project crop for the garden this year is peanuts!  Two varieties.  He's been waiting patiently to plant these out, not willing to chance any frost.  They were super cool to watch sprout.  It was (duh!) literally a peanut that split, sprouted, and turned green as it was absorbed into the growing seedling.  Matt remembers growing peanuts with his dad when he was a kid.  It is cool to complete the circle.  Did you know peanuts grow underground like potatoes?!?!?  I am so excited to observe the process.

The seed peanut that Matt planted turns green and splits and --like magic--a peanut seedling pops out.  The green ovals may look like leaves in this photo...but they're actually the seed peanut that starts the whole process!  4/14/2026

The temps have been a fairly typical spring rollercoasters.  Matt is excited to think we've covered the artichokes protect from them from frosts for the last time now.  The fancy tulips in the way back were a little sad about the cold, as were the blossoms on the apple tree.  The went from absolutely glorious to rough around the edges overnight.  Several basil seedlings that Matt was hardening off in the greenhouse straight up died the night it dipped to 24 degrees F.

Our apple tree in glorious bloom...before the 24 degree overnight low that made the blossoms wilt. 4/15/2026  

Between overnight lows, the daytimes have been absolutely wonderful!  We've been basking in the backyard on the daily.  Clothes are drying on the line.  It has been bicycling bliss.  Matt and I cycled about under the Rims in the sunshine the first weekend of May.  It was a glorious day for meandering.  We ended up capping the afternoon off with a crisp, light beer on the patio at City Vineyard.  It sent us reminiscing about Europe's sidewalk cafe and patio culture.  It is hard to believe that was a year ago already.  This past weekend we ran all our errands by bike.  It was fabulous!  From the pet store to the hardware store to the craft store to our favorite Thai restaurant to Matt's folks' house to the beer store to home again.  What a pleasant way to take care of business and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine!

Matt accidentally took this photo while checking Spotify on the go.  I thought it was a fun snap of Matt's cycling silhouette!  5/12/2026

The invasive domestic rabbits remain locked out of the yard with chickenwire fencing.  Huzzah!  The bird bath remains a popular hangout for our avian neighbors, though we haven't seen much of our Blue Jay pals.  We have lit the backyard firepit a couple of times already.   I repainted the mushroom caps for our aspen stumps.  Ginger is retired from rodent control, but still regularly makes the rounds of the backyard.  Matt's compost pile is the best it has ever been.  So are his pepper seedlings!  The house wrens are trilling their fool heads' off.  Our friendly neighborhood flock of wild turkeys have been regular fixtures on the commute to work.  The boys are all comically puffed up and showy--pivoting in a deliberate circle, keeping their satellite dish tail pointed at any lady turkey in the vicinity.  The whole lot of them gobble, gobble, gobbling.  Letting their gobbles ring through the quiet morning hours. I wrote a haiku about it this week.

The apple tree and our toadstool stumps.  5/11/2026

Morning Turkey Time

Just a bunch of showoff bros

So hilarious

Oh, the gobbling.  Turkey time is a delight on our morning commute. 5/5/2026 

The Wildflower Walk has basically become a patch of flax.  It remains popular with the passersby--from retired folks to toddlers.  I overheard a mom instructing her little cutie pie that flowers were just for looking at, not for picking.  It was sweet.

Our "field" of flax along the sidewalk.  This photo was taken on a cloudy day, but ohhhhhhhh it is extra dazzling in the full sun.  5/6/2026

I get to spend my actual birthday with my whoooooooooole immediate family.  That is a real special way to ring in another year around the sun.   It is going by too fast, but life is SO good.  

Peppers and eggplants on the day they were transplanted into the greenhouse.  5/11/2026

Spring, spring, spring!