Category: Uncategorized

Back in the fall, we got parsnips in our last CSA bag. I’d never had them and didn’t entirely know what to do with them, so they just sat. When we got back from Christmas, I finally decided to do something with them (the wrong thing, it turned out – I pureed them with milk and cinnamon, don’t know why, and they tasted like wallpaper paste. Next time, use a real recipe.) The tops had tiny little new green sprouts, so I cut them off and put them in water. Now they look like this:

Such cheerful growing green things to have on the counter in January. They’re growing tiny roots – I wonder if ultimately they’ll be replantable? I suspect I’ll lose interest or forget to water them before then. But for the moment, such a fun thing to see each time I enter the kitchen!

A memorial photo for the scrapbooks of the evergreen in our rock wall (dead center):

Kevin hated it from the beginning, but I argued for clemency. Taking a page out of the leather’s book, though, it suddenly effectively doubled in size in a few months. Hmm. Chop away! He dug out the roots (they hadn’t yet compromised the rock wall, but why borrow trouble?). But now it looks so empty. Any recommendations for a slim, max-five-foot plant?

(In other exciting tree news, our neighbours took the treacherous birch down! It was so pretty, especially covered in snow or with its yellow fall leaves, but the top quarter died last winter and it developed a rather pronounced tilt towards our family room. We’d been eyeing it for months, then it dropped a 15-foot branch in our yard in December. It cleared the roofline, but was a bit too close for comfort and there was still a lot of dead tree left overhanging our yard. Our neighbors’ neighbors were having tree work done, so Kevin went over that day to talk to them about it around new years, and they got an appointment set up immediately. We’ve very appreciative – they’re good neighbours.)