Some things I'm enjoying right now

A combination of being busy during the week and Bob needing the computer on the weekends is keeping me offline.  But that's okay.  It's early spring, and there's so much to enjoy!  Here's a sample:

My "granny" cart after a trip to the farmers' market

The farmers' market:

Last Friday I went for the first time in several weeks. The few vegetables at the market all have the look of having been stored since fall, but the egg vendor had his April stock hens out, and I bought one. These hens often have eggs forming inside; Apparently this is considered a delicacy in South America, where our egg guy Tello is from.  The first time I bought one, I was scared to cook the eggs, but I've since learned that there are uses for them, too.  So, I'll be making stock again soon, and perhaps poaching some unlaid eggs.

Also, we bought some cherry branches.  I bought them because I just wanted something natural in the apartment. Between the concrete and the bare branches, New York can become relentlessly gray by April.  I confess I wondered why it was exactly that I was buying a bunch of twigs that had been severed from their trees just when they were about to bloom, but they looked pretty, so I did.  A day or two later, I realized that they too were going to bloom!  Now I'm really glad I bought them.  

(If you think that last paragraph shows my ignorance about all things growing, you'd be right.  I humbly admit that despite great interest, my horticultural knowledge remains quite stunted.  I think someone needs to write a book called New York City Organic Roofdeck Gardening for Dummies.)

I also bought two Sweet 100s tomato plants from a nearby plant store. Sweet 100s are by far my favorite tomato that will grow on a roofdeck. We eat them by the handful in August. We planted ours today, since I'm hoping that last night was the last possible night of freezing weather. 

Sweet 100s

And I bought a lavender plant.  I'll buy more herbs as they become available and when it gets warmer, but I couldn't resist this one.  The smells of lavender and mint make me inexplicably happy!  

Lavender

We missed the challah at the farmers' market, Passover having already begun and the supplies low, but we picked up some at Silver Moon.  Ah, there's nothing quite like snatching a warm chunk of minutes-old challah on the way home from the bakery!

Challah from Silver Moon Bakery

Books:  

Susan, her kids and our family had a big book list exchange.  We got the better end of the deal for sure.  And it gave me a good excuse to go buy books.  And I bought a few new cookbooks from Susan's kitchen blog as well.  So now Bob is reading If On a Winter's Night a Traveler..., and I'm leafing through Amanda Hesser's The Cook and the Gardner, thinking that pork tenderloin with peaches sounds really, really good, even if it is a late-summer dish, and wondering if I can tackle learning to make preserves anytime soon.  

And while it doesn't have anything to do with the list exchange, I'm reading N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope as well.  That's more Easter reading.  At present he seems concerned that I'm going to misunderstand Christian theology and become a Platonist.  I don't think he need worry, especially in April!  But the book makes a lot of good points, and I'm learning from it.

Birds!

Oh, joy!  Birding season is beginning.  Exactly what is it that we like about spending all day in the park, craning through binoculars at some wiggly speck, high in the trees? It's really not explicable, except perhaps that by doing so, we notice things that we'd never notice otherwise, and besides, the birds are so colorful! And of course, we're outside.

This photo has no other purpose than to illustrate the irony of taking the subway to enjoy nature in the park! (Photo by C.Z.)

Today C.Z. talked me into hopping on the subway and going down to the sailboat pond at 72nd St. to see a Yellow-throated Warbler, evidently lost.  They're usually Southern birds, but I don't remember ever seeing one growing up.  (See what I mean about not noticing things otherwise?) Our little celebrity warbler was extremely cooperative, hopping around on low branches in plain view, getting its picture taken by birders with very nice zoom lenses and cameras.  

A Yellow-throated Wabler (image from Wikipedia Commons, but Lloyd's photos are better!)

If this doesn't quite sound like a natural experience to you, at least it makes it easy to find the rare birds!  And most of the birders are pretty nice, too. Since we didn't have a zoom lens, C.Z. couldn't take a good photo of the bird itself, so she took a photo of the birders! Here's a link to one of their websites. We like Lloyd because he's so helpful.

The birding paparazzi (Photo by C.Z.)

We walked up through the park, where we saw some more birds, particularly Goldfinches, but mostly got some exercise and enjoyed the first flowers.  Whereas my relatives in Georgia have had daffodils and azaleas for weeks now, we're just getting our daffodils and tulip magnolias.  It's worth the wait.  New York is no longer gray!

Tulip magnolias in the Shakespeare Garden, Central Park

(Photo by C.Z.)

I guess I should have written three posts, not one!  But I'm making up for lost time...