Inside, my seed order is almost complete. Last week, I spent a pleasant hour rummaging through the “seed exchange” drawers at the county cooperative extension office, then returning again with my friend, Jemila, who is just beginning to grow food. I was especially excited by the number of less common varieties of heirloom seeds and those from the Seed Savers Exchange. The names are wonderful: Winged Pea (a low-growing legume, not related to peas, that most likely originated in northwest Africa), Purple Vienna kohlrabi, whitloof chicory, Black Beauty summer squash, Wong Bok (Chinese cabbage), , Ruby Red swiss chard, Rapini broccoli raab, Sandwich Island salsify, Green Curled Ruffed endive.
February morning (Buckthorns outside living room windows)
And yet, when you look out the window, the most immediate appearance is still deep winter. Temperatures remain in the 20s during the day, and the low teens, or lower, at night. The freezer has gaping spaces between the remaining jars of zucchini and pumpkin soups and tubs of berries. Kat still prefers to spend most of her time in the mud room, venturing outside only when required, the rest of the time positioning herself by the inner door to the house so as to make a rapid dash past unsuspecting feet into the warm, forbidden territory.
Kat (photo by Beth Bannister)
This morning, I woke to the sound of the snow plow and a new dusting of powdery white.
Buckthorns are a weedy tree, but their relatively small size makes them useful at the wood's edge bordering the southern end of our gardens. These two are outside our living room windows. I love the way the two trunks have grown up around each other.
Love the Picature of Kat. My trees looked like that this morning, but it is all gone this evening.
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