"An Ode to Parsnips"

You've lasted the winter, and the ground has now thawed,
I withhold my thumb's up, but perhaps a slight nod,
for carrots and radishes are much more of a treat,
But you take so little work, and therefore I eat.

If you were to appear, another time of the year,
I might leave you out, and not even pout
But you shout "spring is here, or at least it's quite near!"
And stir more excitment than many a sprout


So, for all of you who read this and are thinking, "Hey, I love parsnips!", well let me at least say that Katherine made some the other night with potatoes, turnips, carrots and tofu, and some spices and it was actually delightful. So I figure it's mostly in the preparation. And they really do hold a special place in my heart, and stir more excitment than many a sprout.(Not a hot pepper sprout though, which is in our living room right now!)

Did you hear that?

Well, it's beginning to look a lot like spring! Not just a living room full of transplants, but the snow melting as well, and new birds seen and heard. Most exciting were a pair of bald eagles we saw perching in our backyard a couple of days ago. Well, it's time for year 2 I guess. We're finishing up our plans, and we're starting all sorts of transplants: leeks, some tomatoes, onions, broccoli, cabbage, and even a few artichokes.

It hopefully also means we'll start posting somewhat regularly again. Because there might actually be something interesting to say.(Even though my aunt says it doesn't have to be very 'newsworthy' for aunts to be interested)

Something else that's exciting is my new homemade riddle blog, called Homegrown Chestnuts. There's a link on the right, and an introduction on the page itself.

Also, due to the anticipated arrival of the final Harry Potter book(#7) this July, we have 'begun' reading them together. I'm reading aloud to Kath and Mike(alas, Brad is at University reading books of a less friendly nature) and of course when I say "begun" I mean we're on book 4. If all goes well I'll pass the torch over to reading/voice master extroardinaire, Ben McLean, when he and his wife Sara hopefully visit in the summer. Crossing our fingers!

Also of note: our homemade greenhouse survived the winter! Believe me, we were all scared at some points. It gets very windy here in the winter. One vent broke off but Mike easily fixed it yesterday. We're still getting carrots from it, and Kath picked a very small salad the other day for lunch, because most of it is either eaten(by us) or frozen to death. Hopefully next year we will cover up all the cracks, thus insulating it a little better, and we'll have even greater bounty. Also, we'll be building some new cold frames this spring and they will add to the winter bounty as well. Root cellar? still not sure if we're going to build that one this year, but it looks like it may be postponed.

Another project: some very friendly neighbours donated us some big new windows(they had planned to build a sun deck, but had recently decided not to) and we're going to build a small greenhouse with them for transplants. Very cool(or warm hopefully).

Well, that's what's on the mind these days. We'll keep you 'posted'!

Luke

just checking

I just want to make sure that I'm doing what I'm trying to do