Weeks 14 - 17: April Showers

April was pretty busy month, lots of work. Aside from that, I taught 2 classes (2 sessions each) midmonth. One was a gardening class, and the other was a Sherlock Holmes themed chemistry class. (Projects 11 & 12) The Holmes chemistry class was a lot of work but really rewarding - one of the students was a huge Holmes buff, and the kids seemed to really enjoy all the science. The class was inspired by a project still in progress, rereading all of the Sherlock Holmes books .

Spring arrived, which has been wonderful, allergies aside! The seeds started indoors are growing nicely, and the tomatoes were transplanted to larger pots and are ready to be transplanted a second time (transplanting is detrimental to some plants, but can be helpful for tomatoes). A swiss chard plant from last summer survived through the winter and has been growing beautifully. A quick phone picture of the most recent harvest:

 Swiss chard is one of my favorite vegetables. It’s best when the stalks are tender and sweet. If you don’t like the stalks, or if they’re too tough, the green leafy part can be cooked like spinach. If you’ve never tried it, you should!


Speaking of food, after a year of delays, F and I finally baked carrot cake cupcakes. They were great! K decorated one to look like me – a smile and glasses. F's cupcakes turned out much better than mine. Decorating cupcakes is not my forte. I am much better at eating them!

Week 5: No shadow!

The groundhog didn’t see his shadow this week, so it’s a good a time as any to get started on garden plans for the spring. I started some seeds this week (heirloom tomatoes (red & yellow), cherry tomatoes, and bright lights chard) and will finish starting the rest of the seeds soon (probably beans, peas, and spinach).

I got caught up in work, so didn’t end up doing any food projects this week, though I did make a quick and delicious pan fried halibut for dinner on Sunday. Looking forward to some out of town visitors in the upcoming weeks, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to cook together and I’ll have some fun food to post.

However, I did finish two craft projects. Apologies for the terrible photos - all my photos are poorly lit, I think my next project should be a lightbox!

#6: An Angry Bird!

#5: Finished knitting the headphone sweater. They even have a knitted version of the little loop. (previously)

And progressed a bit more on the sweater which is taking forever! Now named the Spare Minute Sweater, because that’s when I get to work on it.