Spring was late and these last two weeks it has been making up for lost time! Instead of the gradual unfolding that happens most years, this year everything is bursting out all at once. Trees are leafing out, shrubs are blooming, tulips and crocus are both blooming, the cherry tree is coming into bloom, the honeyberries and currants are blooming and even a few strawberry plants have flowers already. My allergies have gone haywire and I am fast learning to breathe through my ears since my nose is nearly always stuffed up and my eyes are scratchy, and sneezing! I have never had the sneezing kind of allergy symptom but this year it’s all mine baby! I hit the seasonal trifecta — gardening, cycling and allergies all at once.
The Dashwoods are loving life right now. They get to go out in the garden almost every day and spend a couple hours doing their chicken thing. The garden looks like a series of chicken-sized mines were detonated across it from all their earnest digging. And, of course, when Bookman and I were out working in the garden this afternoon they all had to come help.
There is so much to be done we had to divide and conquer today. Bookman cleared out all the compacted winter straw from the chicken run while I worked in the front yard clearing out the mulch from all the perennial beds. Later in the afternoon we were both in the backyard garden working on separate tasks. We got a lot done, but there is still so much to do. I haven’t even been able to plant early season seeds yet! But this coming Friday Bookman and I both have the day off to go to the big plant sale and all sorts of things will being going into the ground.
While I was working in the beds today I performed the annual exercise of grief over what has not returned and curiosity over what the heck is that plant cuz I didn’t plant it there. This year’s big no return looks to be the creeping thyme. I planted it 17 years ago and it had spread out into a huge, beautiful patch that sometimes I had to clip back so it wouldn’t overwhelm other plants. It has one tiny leaf in the entire patch. I am hoping it is just being a little slow, but it has left me wondering what has caused it to not pull through like usual. Likewise the thriving patch of pussytoes a little over in the same bed are completely gone. Meanwhile the little alpine strawberries I planted in a sunny niche on the apple tree side of the yard have spread out far and wide. They have yet to produce any strawberries but they make a nice groundcover.
In the backyard herb spiral I was pleased to see that putting heavy mulch on top of the culinary thyme and oregano got them through winter for the first time. We have bunching onions coming up everywhere and the walking onion is enormous. The new strawberry patch we started two years ago has filled in nicely and we should get some decent strawberries this year. I can hardly wait!
In addition to all the gardening, I have been on several long bike rides and have finally started racing crits. Last weekend was the Miesville 56. It is 56 miles (90 km) of gravel roads with a short section of “B” road, meaning minimally maintained. The start of this section is a short, steep hill that you have to ride down. Seems easy enough except it is rutted, sandy, and has rocks the size of softballs all over it. In 2017, my first time doing this event, I looked at the road, got off my bike and walked down the hill. This year I was determined to ride down it. I had a hard hold on my brakes so I could go slow and I had one foot unclipped from a pedal so I could put it down easily if I had to. I made it down without incident and was very pleased with myself. It made up for later when the wind picked up and I almost got blown off the road a couple times. I had a cycling friend riding with me too! It was her first big gravel ride and she had a great time. Yay!This same friend is also my racing teammate. The Machinery Hill Criterium series at the State Fairgrounds got off to a late start but there have been two races now. Neither my friend nor I have ever raced before, let alone raced crits. Crit racing is done on a short, closed circuit of roads. You race laps of the course for about 25 – 40 minutes (depending on your race category — newer racers get the shorter times) and you race for points, not first one over the line at the end of the race. Points are awarded for where you cross the line in the sprint laps and at the finish of the race. It is possible that the first person over the line at the end of the race does not win. I haven’t gotten any points and I haven’t reached the level of even being able to strategize on how I might get some.
Crit races are fast with lots of corners, so my main focus has been learning cornering. After two races and some instruction, I am getting better at it. And, I learned in my last race that corners are where attacks and repositioning in the pack happens. You want to be riding in the pack, called a peloton, because it moves faster and easier due to drafting. Outside the peloton you have to work twice as hard. On our first race my teammate and I got dropped from the peloton after two laps. We kept going hard, practicing our cornering, and making it our goal to not get lapped by the peloton. We started our last lap about 4 seconds before peloton crossed the finish so we succeeded in not being lapped!
The second race my teammate couldn’t make because of work obligations. I was fully expecting to be dropped from the peloton again, but I wasn’t! A huge success for me to stay in the peloton for the whole race. And wow, did we go fast! I was usually around the edges of the group but a few times I found myself right in the middle of it with the wheels of the person in front and behind me an inch away and the women on either side of me, I could stick out my elbow and hit them. Yes, this is utterly terrifying while at the same time being completely exhilarating.My race is usually the first of the night, though the schedule going forward has the men’s cat 4/5 race alternating first race of the night with the women’s cat 4/5. As a new rider, I am categorized as 5. It’s fun to stick around after my race to watch the others race. The men’s fields are huge compared to the women’s fields and because of their size, they move even faster. It’s fun to watch but I love watching the other women race and cheering them on.
My third race with be this coming Tuesday night. My teammate may not be able to make this one either. I am hoping to stick with the pack the whole time again and fingers crossed, finish in the top ten. I was 13th my first race and 11th last week so it could happen!
Everything here is blooming all at once, too. It’s weird to see the last of the flowering pear blossoms still on the tree while the lilacs are blooming.
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Jeanne, so this is not just happening here? Crazy all over! My tulips haven’t even bloomed yet the apple trees are getting flower buds on them.
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I think Spring is suddenly making up and bursting out! I am sorry to hear about your allergies and as someone who has suffered all her life with the, I empathize and I wish to God, pollen’s would stop impacting what could have been very pleasant months! Hope you feel better soon and are able to thoroughly enjoy the bike rides!
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cirtnecce, thanks! I now have a cold to add insult to the whole thing. Bah. The cold will go away, the allergies won’t, but I refuse to allow them to get in the way of the things I enjoy doing outdoors!
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Spring was delayed so all the bulbs I planted are only now fading but they are occupying space I want for other things so summer planting is delayed consequently. I just bought some creeping thyme – never grown this before so hope mine spreads like yours initially
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BookerTalk – good luck with your creeping thyme! I have for 17 years found it to be nearly indestructible which is why it’s not coming back this year had me so baffled.
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Nothing I ever grow is indestructible – those that survive tend to be weeds
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So it sounds like your weeds might be indestructible 😉
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Spring also came late here on Long Island and my wife and I are also late on all the spring work. We have also been trying to get out into the hiking trails as much as possible.
It is great that you have gotten so into book biking. Good luck and have fun.
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Brian Joseph – oh hiking! I haven’t done that in ages. Lots of nice places to walk around here but hiking means a car trip somewhere and I’d much rather go for a bike ride 🙂
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I know what you mean about the gardening! I wished for another garden and I got it. I’m watching things come up in my new gardens (all around the house). I think I have more hostas, heucheras, and hydrangeas than a nursery. I’ve been joking that there must have been a sale on plants starting with the letter ‘H’! There’s so much to cut back, so many invasives to try to eradicate, and new plants to plant. I’m planning to incorporate as many natives as possible.
Tell the Dashwoods I wish them Happy Spring!
I don’t know how you have the time or the energy for bicycle racing!
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Joan – LOL you should add more plants that start with H! Sounds like you have some work ahead, but I bet you are happy happy happy 🙂
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Wow that racing does sound completely terrifying! I’m not sure about exhilarating, ha ha! 😉 I’m so glad I’ve finally been able to get out in the yard/garden the past couple of weeks and get some things in the ground! We’ll see how it all shakes out but gosh I’ve had fun so far. I really hope we get some corn; it’s the first time we’ve tried it and my son is just in love with corn and he specifically requested that we try to grow it this year.
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Laila, if you can get beyond the oh sh*t! feeling, the exhilarating comes afterwards 😀 So glad you’ve been having fun in your garden! Corn is easy to grow. Have you thought of doing a three sisters planting? Pole beans to climb up the corn stalks and fix nitrogen in the soil for the corn and pumpkin or winter squash in between so the big leaves shade the soil and also keep weeds down. It works really well 🙂
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Oooh, I don’t think I knew about that trick – thanks, Stefanie! 🙂
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Spring has hit us with some sudden heat, too. Last two days it was over ninety degrees! Unheard of for May (at least, that I recall). Today I’m relieved it’s back down in the low seventies and I am rushing to get seedlings ready… I lost my culinary thyme and my oregano this past winter- I guess I did not mulch them heavy enough. Lesson learned. We had a lot of severe cold.
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Eeep Jeane! That’s terribly hot! I hope it isn’t an indicator of what the summer is going to be like. I hope your growing things is full steam ahead!
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It’s the same here too, everything flowering at once. Quite a few plants haven’t made it, so-called hardy fuchsias are all dead and strangely the edelweiss too, our weather must have been worse than in the Alps. Good luck for tomorrow night!
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Pining, thanks! A hardy fuchsias? I didn’t know there was such thing. Your poor edelweiss.
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All that training you did during the winter months is paying off isn’t it? That’s wonderful you are catching up on all of your biking. Have fun at the plant sale and I can’t wait to see what you guys find!
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Iliana, it is! Thanks! Got lots of plants at the sale. Will be posting on it soon I hope!
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Our strawberries are getting ripe — I had my first one yesterday. Sad to leave them, but our new house has strawberries and all kinds of other things. I’m excited to explore what the new yard has to offer! And your bike racing sounds amazing!
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Ripe strawberries already? I have to wait another 2-3 weeks before they start to ripen.
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What do you do with the compacted chicken straw? Does it get added to the compost, get burnt/thrown out or used elsewhere? I have free nitrogen in my head because of the chicken poop, but feel free to correct me.
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Nordie – we compost the straw and all of our chicken bedding and waste. Our entire backyard is a vegetable garden so it gets put to good use 🙂
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Interesting! I never heard of crit racing before. Good for you for staying in that peloton, Stefanie, and best of luck in the next one! I’m always amazed when watching cycling races at how close they are to each other. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be in the middle of all that!
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Andrew, I think I read somewhere that it is an American invention. Don;t quote me on that though! It is making its way to the international scene though not quite as popular–yet!– as it is in the US. And thanks! The racing continues to be fun even though I am not even close to winning!
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Winter may have lingered, but like Omaha has Summer, as in the high hot season of it, also arrived in Minneapolis? I guess your garden will be happy, if a little confused–LOL. You look very stylish in your racing garb–it looks like fun and not a little adventurous! Hope all is well!
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Danielle, we just had a record breaking 6-day heatwave. Ugh! And thanks! I am not a fan of pink so of course my “team” colors are pink white and black.
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