Spring odds & ends

I'm still playing catch-up here at home since my recent spring break trip, so I thought I'd give you a little peek into the random things that I've been up to in the past couple weeks.

I came back to Iowa right when a cold front was hitting the state.  Fortunately, all my tulips have already bloomed in an odd mismatch of color.  I guess I still had a few bulbs from previous years in my garden bed.  But it's been fun to see what pops up.

I bought three six-packs of ever-bearing strawberries from Earl May last month.  I planted the strawberries in two stack-a-pots.  I found a new, even bigger stack-a-pot at K-Mart in Ames.  So I'm hoping to get lots of strawberries this spring and summer!

I planted the first carrot, radish and lettuce seeds about mid-March.  I'll keep planting a few seeds in random spots in the garden through Mother's Day, when the weather warms up. So far, the frost doesn't seem to have hurt the little seedlings.

My rhubarb is huge!  I plan to share a few rhubarb recipes with you all soon.

The lilacs also bloomed early this year.  My husband cut off a huge bunch of blooms, then asked me to place them all over the house!  Nothing better than the fragrance of lilacs!

Oh, and I mentioned last week's frost, but I couldn't help but laugh when I saw how well my husband "protected" his favorite clematis vine.  He showed such initiative, I decided not to tell him that he probably shouldn't use a heavy blanket to cover his flowers.

I used old curtains to cover up the rest of our perennials that are budding already. However, we lucked out because we didn't get a hard freeze here in central Iowa. 

I tried to make a new granola bar recipe.  They tasted great, but were crumbly and didn't hold their shape.

While on vacation in Arizona, I met a real cowboy.  His name is Michael, and he was getting a drink at the bar before heading out to keep watch over a herd of 300 cattle on a nearby ranch.

Finally, I couldn't get over how beautiful the sunsets are in Arizona. I can see why cowboys like to ride off into the sunset :)