Exuberant Lady

Lake Watch 5.2.08

Hey Everyone. Here is the second to last pictures of ice-out, presented in a series of four pictures each, first viewed from the left, then across, and then right. Each set includes Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening, Friday afternoon and Friday evening, so we’re watching about a 28 hour time period in all.

The last two pictures are of surface ice that came into shore Friday evening. These piles are 6 - 8 feet high. And that’s not the last of the ice. The big mass is moving in this morning. Yes, even though the lake looks mostly open in the pictures, there are still huge sections of a somewhat thick ice out there, now moving into shore, somewhat in our direction I fear. If the winds don’t change, we’re in for a bit of shoreline damage this year. But that’s life on the big lake!

Looking left ↓

Looking across ↓

Looking right ↓

and two more

I believe we’ll have the grand finale this evening and I’ll post the pics tomorrow.

I finally got my pea pod starts in the garden yesterday. These are snow peas (also called pea pods or mange touts). The vines on this variety will grow to between 3 - 4 feet high and be just covered with pea pods, Mr. B’s all time favorite veggie. I’ve never started them in doors before, but I’m so glad I did with spring so long in the coming this year. I’ll start more peas from seed in the garden this weekend, and then again in August for a fall crop.

It’s hard to believe the ice has not come out yet! It’s extremely unusual for the lake not to be completely open by the the first of May. But pictures don’t lie.

Lake Watch 5.1.08

Lake Watch 4.28.08

What a sight for sore eyes! The amount of open water means the tide has turned on ice-out. I hope you can see the ripples. Moving water = more melting ice, Hooray! I have to admit the lake in these stages really is beautiful. But I want the ice to go away NOW!.

Tonight is the only night below freezing in the forecast for the next ten days, which means tomorrow might be planting day, if the beds warm up sufficiently. Finally!! Hoo Hoo! I really want to get the pea seedlings, the leeks, onions, broccoli, garlic and shallots out so they can get watered in by the sprinkles coming our way Wednesday. I ache just thinking about all that work, but at the same time I eager for it. Life is good!

Sincere apologies for missing a day of lake watching photos! But really, it’s okay, because the day I missed looked just like the day before. In fact, this lake-watching may not be the right tack for someone who is trying not to be depressed about lingering cold and such a late gardening start! Who knew ice-out would drag on and on this way, or that the thermometer reading at 6 a.m. on April 25th would still read 34º with possible snow in the forecast! And three more days to come of weather closer to winter than spring.

So what’s an eager beaver to do besides keep on keepin’ on. I try to make the plants in the wagon yearning for the garden as comfortable as possible and ditto for the plants under lights straining to be hardened off and planted out. I read, I cook, I practice my music, I wait.

Here are the next ice-out photos: you can actually see some progress, even though its so misty and… well… so much colder looking than other days.

Also, I hope you will consider participating in the Ecojustice08 Challenge that’s circulating among the book bloggers and elsewhere. There is a wonderfully inspiring post about it at ToujoursJacques where you can get the link and the details.

Would someone please do some sort of dance or similar ritual to bring some warm weather my way??

Lake Watch 4.22.08

It’s hard to believe a week has gone by since I started taking these photos.  And so little progress really until today.  But the rifts are deeper now and pieces of the ice mass are starting to separate near in. Very soon now we’ll see more dramatic changes.

In the garden all the raised beds are cleaned out, prepared, and waiting. It’s supposed to reach 70 degrees tomorrow (hopefully).  This spring’s warm up has been so reluctant.  Each day’s temps fail to reach projections; and nights are still very cool, with frost still a strong possibility.

The earliest plants are aching to get out from under lights, or out of the wagon and into the ground. Come on Spring!

I want to share a bit of news with you regarding one of my other blogs.

I’m sad to report that I’m going to give up on Exuberant Reader for a while. In a few days, I’ll be taking it off line—putting it on hold—in hopes of coming back some time in the future when I can devote more energy to it (this fall?).

I will continue with Exuberant Lady, of course —to detail my gardening escapades, and also with Exuberant Chef (my recipe blog), where I’ll continue to participate in the Soup’s On! challenge (to review 6 cookery/food writing books within the next year—piece of cake!).

I had a great time as a book blogger and I’m sad to give it up. But neither did I like facing it every day—feeling bad that I didn’t have the mental or physical energy for it this time of year, when so much of the energy I have belongs to the garden.

True to the old saying, however, when one thing dies another is being born. I want to invite you to visit the new site of a friend whom I have convinced to start blogging. Please visit Toujours Jacques at your earliest convenience and give a warm welcome. I guarantee you will like the writing as well as the range of topics on this site.

I’m sure book thoughts will creep into these garden pages from time to time. But I have to say, that it won’t bother me as much as it did at first when I was trying so frantically to keep things separate. It’s all good.

Below find today’s lake watch ice-out photos. It started raining just after I took these, so the look of the lake has already been transformed. As you can see, there is good progress near in; and in the bottom photo you can even see some pieces of ice that have floated off the mass and into the open water. All of the darkness you see at a distance is still just dark ice. But more pitting and pot-holing is occurring everywhere now, and the cracks are more and deeper. Soon and very soon we will see serious progress. I promise!

Lake Watch ~ 4.21.08

Lake Watch ~ 4.20.08

Progress toward ice-out today, if less than I’d hoped for. A few smallish ‘potholes’ starting to form near in, some with open water (see lower right corner of first photo).  But the large dark patches further out are still just ice. Rain in the forecast should change the picture significantly over the next couple of days.

I did not get my peas planted today which started out and stayed much cooler than anticipated. In fact, we never reached 70 and our 60-ish temps didn’t show up until almost 5 p.m. If it isn’t raining tomorrow, I’ll get them out. I did transplant peppers and eggplant seedlings. Eggplant are such gorgeous plants even as seedlings; and as mature plants in the garden they are almost beyond compare with their beautiful large-leafed foliage, bounteous colorful fruits, and striking flowers.

I just want to mention two “clicks” that will interest anyone trying to eat more locally. First, check out Michael Pollan’s “Why Bother? Looking for a few good reasons to go green.” in today’s New York Times Sunday Magazine. And you can read a fellow-blogger’s post about that article here. There is also a good discussion going at Modern Beet, where Jen has raised some questions about our food choices and what each of us can do, complete with a fabulous recipe including one of my favorite things—Greens!! Enjoy!

Lake Watch ~ 4.19.08

Progress toward ice-out is slow, very unlike last year or the year before. I wonder if it’s because we haven’t had ANY days in the 70s or 80s yet. I think most years we have had a couple of unseasonable warm spells by now. Tomorrow is supposed to be near 70 degrees with a few rainy days to follow which will help considerably.

I’m going to try to plant peas tomorrow. The soil in the bed I prepared for them last fall has already warmed up nicely; that’s one of the big benefits of planting in raised beds. I’ll both set out my pea seedlings and sow some pea seeds directly in the garden. It will be interesting to see if the ‘head start’ of beginning indoors was worth it or, as is so often the case, the garden starts catch up.

Today I also transplanted more tomatoes— Roma and Green Zebra—as well as Serrano Peppers. Tomorrow I hope to finish re-potting the peppers (Green and Red Bell, and Red and Yellow Bulls Horn) and, if I have time, work on the eggplant as well. Sheesh! There’s no end to it, but I’m not complaining!

I hope you’ll bear with me if from time to time this garden journal turns into a list or mere reportage of things done or still to do. Sometimes, like tonight, that’s all I’ll have time and energy for. Is it worth all this effort? Of course. The salad we had for dinner—made entirely from my own organic mesclun, arugula, and mâche—was a great reward for all those labors. Oh, and food can’t get any more local!

Lake Watch ~ 4.18.08

Oof! I’m way too tired tonight to do more than post photos. But we are one day closer to ice-out. Hooray! Surface cracks are deepening, more slush is evident, and the open area right next to shore (bottom photo) is now about 3 feet (at it’s widest spots).

I transplanted more tomatoes into larger pots—paste tomatoes and three varieties of cherry tomatoes. But most of today’s work was outdoors. All of our snow is gone except for that lingering on some of the garden beds (darn). But it was a gorgeous day for outdoor work (60°), so I did plenty—and I’m feeling it. I think I also got a bit of sunburn! I uncovered and cleaned out 7 raised beds — just 9 to go (but they’re still snow covered). Rhubarb is poking through. Chives are up. Iris, columbine, astilbe, peonies, and mums as well. I picked up loads of sticks and pine boughs and raked and raked and raked.

Now a hot bath, a good book, some ibuprofen, and early to bed.

Lake Watch ~ 4.17.08

Lake Watch: I know it looks like there are some holes forming in 2nd photo, but there aren’t. There are spots that are starting to turn a little slushy, hence darkening. But there is still ice beneath them. You can see, especially in the 3rd photo, that surface cracks are starting to form close in. And I included a fourth photo looking straight down from the deck that shows melting beginning around the very edges. By the way, there used to be a railroad tie and stone retaining wall where the gravel is. We lost it to some mid-winter ice heaves. Let’s hope that’s the extent of our damage this year.

In other news:

One of the garden wagons that I told you about (here) saw its first service today. These seedlings—leeks, onions, shallots, garlic, sugar snap and snow peas— have seen the last of the downstairs lights and will go into the garden as soon as I can work the soil. In the meantime, they’ll get used to the outdoors in the wagon, which I can wheel into the garage at night.

I’ve never started peas, shallots, or garlic in advance before, but I’ve researched it and I can’t think of why it wouldn’t work. Maybe Mr. B will have his pea pods in late June again, despite lingering snow and a delayed start in the garden. It’s nice to have an opportunity to make up for lost time.

I also transplanted some lettuces today. I grow most of my lettuces in containers, partly to avoid chomping critters. My earliest lettuces go into these bowl-style containers that used to be hanging baskets. The containers are light weight, they fit nicely into the wagon for hardening off, and I can place them around the garden, in the raised beds, on the patio, or anywhere I wish. I start with four plants per bowl and thin to just one that is allowed to form a full head, eating along the way of course.

Today I also seeded 8 varieties of nasturtiums, heirloom morning glories (from last year’s saved seeds), okra, bulbing fennel, and cilantro. It’s a good thing I added 3 more banks of shop lights downstairs—and it’s also a very good thing that the electrician has been here so I don’t blow any more fuses!