What a week!

Today is Day 4 of my Tulip in a Jar experiment. I'll let you judge the results for yourself!

After just 4 days every single bulb I planted has started growing.

Half of the plants are almost sticking out of the jar

The roots look so cool!

If you try this, make sure that the water is not touching the bulb. I had my jars a little too full and there were some small spots of mold.

After the windstorm that bent my metal feeder stand, Drew put together the Taj Mahal of bird feeder stations. We're going to put a tray feeder on the top at a later date. I'm trying something new this year: We put wool and cotton fibers into a suet feeder for the birdies to use for nesting material. I'm interested in seeing if they actually do it.

The electricians came and I finally have lighting under my cabinets. I can actually see what I'm doing now.

Finally the best part of the week: After three days of rain and a little warm weather my plants think Spring is here!

My first garlic plant has popped up.

Prairie plants never let me down. The Golden Alexander is growing like mad!

The Catmint is also doing really well!

I have garden fever really bad. I think I may have to plant something tomorrow with the attitude of: If it grows Awesome, if not I can just wait until May like normal. :) Have a great weekend!

Blooms and birds

Ah Pinterest. You have me addicted and inspired!

For my latest experiment: Tulips in a jar.

I'm really excited to see if they work. We got a great garden themed wedding present and there were two packages of tulips: Apeldoorn (red) and Yokohama (yellow). I tried to do a mixture in each. We'll see how it goes.

I love spring because of all the birds and blooms.
We had an unusual visitor to our bird feeder yesterday: a Red Winged Blackbird!! RWBL are one of my favorite birds. Nothing describes a walk in a wetland than the song of a RWBL!

I think Spring is here

On Tuesday, March 13, 2012 I saw my first Robin of the year! In fact, I won first Robin! My hubby and I were taking the puppy for a walk in the neighborhood and I saw the Robin out of the corner of my eye. I WON! I love winning first Robin!

Then on Wednesday, March 14, we went for a walk down by the river and I heard my favorite song... Red-wing blackbirds!

THEN on Thursday, March 15, we were playing fetch with the puppy at around 7:30pm when Drew got buzzed by a mosquito! Not 5 minutes later, we saw a bat zigzaging around our evergreen trees. I KNOW that is the earliest I have ever seen a flying bat. I think this will be a crazy spring!

Enjoy the beautiful weather... take a walk!

A Special Dinner

So it just happens to be Valentine's Day. My hubby and I have never "celebrated" this Hallmark holiday. Wait, I guess that's not true. Our first V-day, I teased him about getting me some cute stuffed animal that would sit on my shelf and collect dust. I decided to be a smart-ass and I bought a $4 puppy holding a heart and left it on his bed. It sat on his shelf and collected dust until my real puppy dog decided it belonged to him. And that is the extent of our Valentine's Day celebration.

The real reason for this special dinner is that my grandparents recently moved into town and we inherited some of the contents of their freezer. I have never been a fan of eating duck. But here we had an almost 6lb duck taking up an entire shelf in our mini-freezer. My hubby pulled it out and decided he wanted to try it.

I was in class all day and right before I left the lab, I realized I still needed a recipe to cook this duck. From working in a restaurant, I knew that duck and cherry go really well together. Google to the rescue! A quick search for a duck and cherry recipe and I found this gem: Succulent Stuffed Roast Duck With Balsamic Cherry Sauce. A quick stop at the grocery store and by 6:30 we were eating. Feast your eyes on my cooking adventure.

Stuffed Roast Duck with Balsamic Cherry Sauce
Crescent Rolls
Asparagus with Almond slices
and a Mixed Green Salad

Brown Rice/Sage/Sauteed Onion/Pecan Stuffing

Reducing the Cherry/Red Wine/Balsamic Vinegar Sauce

Finished Sauce

I'm still not a fan of duck, but even I have to admit this dinner was pretty yummy.

Homemade Suet and Winter birds

Last week my hubby and I made homemade suet - his idea. He wanted to reuse the hamburger and bacon grease instead of throwing it out. I'm so proud!

Our recipe - which was really more like me throwing stuff into a pot.

First I melted the left-over fat (we keep it in a progresso soup can)
Then I added 1/2 pound of lard to try and spread out the amount of salt.
While the fat and lard were melting I added 2 giant scoops of peanut butter.
Melt completely but don't boil.

Then the fun came: I added
- dried mealworms
- niger thistle
- raisins
- 2 flavors of craisins
- and mixed seed containing: black oil and regular sunflowers, peanuts, and millet
add enough to make it almost a solid

Then we added a TON of whole wheat flour until it was the consistency of dough.

Put it in 9x9 recycled aluminum tins and put in freezer. We pulled one out that afternoon after it had frozen and put some out for our feathered friends to try - just in time for the cold weather to hit.

So far the chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches seem to love it.

I haven't been fast enough to take pictures of the chickadees enjoying the suet but I do have some pictures of them feasting on the dried mealworms I put out. I took an old wire hanger apart and made a holder for a tiny glad tupperware. Its not pretty but it makes a perfect mealworm feeder.

Also right before Christmas we had a flock of Cedar Waxwings take over our yard. They were here for just a few minutes and I haven't seen them since.

New Year's Resolutions

Here are my New Year's Resolutions - a month late -

I will start drinking more water.

and

I want to actually keep up with my blog this year

For those of you who know me well, most days I might drink a whole 4 oz of water. My goal is to drink more water and therefore quit drinking soda. Hi, My name is Emily and I am a Coke (classic) addict. In the last 2 weeks I have finally started falling into a trend. First I substituted cranberry juice for soda. Then I started doing half cranberry juice half water. Then when we ran out of cranberry juice, I went to just straight water. This last week, by my best estimates, I think I was averaging 2-3 pints a day. The conversion that means that I have been drinking 32-48 oz a day!! That's a record for me! Let's just hope that I can keep it up.

My other resolution is to get this blog back up and running. I have all kinds of fun ideas that I can't wait to do. I've already started the new year off running:

I love my 100% organic cotton tote bags and I wanted to dress them up a little:

Finished Project

I printed a vintage WW2 Victory Garden poster on to iron on paper. I think I let the paper get too hot because it the backing stuck to the canvas. I picked off the tiny pieces of paper with a tweezers and then used Mod Podge to protect it. There are some small pieces of the picture missing, but I kinda like it. I think it looks more vintage that way.

I also learned how to make my own vanilla extract! I also made a couple of trial jars for my friends. Vanilla beans, vodka, and 6-8 weeks to ferment - tada - homemade extract! Mine should be ready to try next week. I can't wait to bake with it - or make an adult vanilla coke!! I made the labels and used Mod Podge to glue them on.

This is the bottle I made for myself. It's a ACNW Maple Syrup jar and a wine cork I cut to fit.

Vanilla beans and vodka

These were gifts "From the Kitchen of the Gypsy Naturalist"!!

And last but not least I made Owl cupcakes for the Super Bowl party I bartended. My theory... "Whooo cares Whoo wins" plus who doesn't love big-eyed owls??

!

Is this one sad or sleepy??

I thought the ear tufts on this one turned out well.

Update on Operation Buzz!

Yesterday I went out to check on my flowers and I am very pleased that my bumble bee population has increased to 2!! Yes, I saw 2 at the very same time. Then I went to check on my garden and lo and behold, I had a bumble bee pollinating my tomato flowers. On a side note: Since we planted those "bee friendly" flowers by the shed, my tomato plants are finally starting to produce fruit and not just flowers.

I got a book from the U of Mn called Befriending Bumble Bees (which is a fasinating, quick read) and there was a small part about bumble bees and tomatoes I found very intersting:

Buzz Pollination
Bumble bees ensure the perfection of tomatoes by performing a special feat called "buzz pollination." The bumble bee grabs the anther cone (the flower part containing the pollen) and shakes it, releasing pollen that would otherwise stay trapped in the anther cone. The pollen is then available to fertilize flowers so that fruit can be produced. Good pollination produces large, evenly shaped, attractive fruits.

I will thank my small number of bumble bees for finally pollinating my tomatoes!

I did finally get a picture of one of my bees. The Joe-Pye-Weed is finally in bloom and it kept her busy enough not to mind my camera right in her face, or mostly rear since she kept turning away from me.

I bet my neighbors think I'm crazy running around with camera in hand...<