Rose and I had an idea for a menage return last month . We hosted our kids for a week on the spring train to Serendipity .
Our Word live with his married woman in London ; our girl and granddaughter hold out in Bellingham , WA . The plan work . It was slap-up to have the kidskin home .
Our children have always enjoyed the out-of-doors — in backyard , parks , garden and the wild . Molly and Cooper , when they were young , even made a little walk - around money , pull in bootleg - eyed Susan seeds for Jelitto Perennial Seeds , my old employer .
Cooper, Story, Rufus and Rose in George Rogers Clark Park in Louisville, KY.
Cooper , Story , Rufus and Rose in George Rogers Clark Park in Louisville , KY .
Molly and Story at Bernheim Forest and Research Arboretum in Clermont , KY .
Our granddaughter , Story , has devoured nature ’s surprise from a very young eld . She ’s 12 now and shows no sign of let up . This past January , for representative , Story took a New Year ’s Day polar dip into Bellingham ’s chilly Lake Padden . While visiting us , she jumped into Salvisa ’s Salt River with her friend Sofia . The river ’s temperature was a chilly 55F. Story is a Pisces water glitch .
Cooper, Story, Rufus and Rose in George Rogers Clark Park in Louisville, KY.
I myself am astrologically challenge . I prefer a warm door above 70F before I dim my toes in the water .
I do n’t desire to recall about summer ’s heating system and tyrannous humidness just as Kentucky begins to shed dormancy , when sky are grim and temperature are mild . I survive winter by hop with every fiber to be reborn in April . I succeeded . Sometimes spring blooms and favorable star topology are wait at the place . You do n’t want to leave out Serendipity . summertime can wait .
Seven old age ago , we begin binge - planting 500 daffodil bulbs in a two - and - a - half - acre field of study , adjacent to the Salt River . We kept up the fall ritual for five years . visor daffodil bloom was a week late this yr , but it was serendipitously perfect . It was time for a party .
Molly and Story at Bernheim Forest and Research Arboretum in Clermont, KY.
The chartreuse maple catkins arrived at the Serendipity weapons platform in former April . If your eyes were pare , you could see 100 - foot Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the distance , beginning to illumine up woodland . Before a week went by , the redbud blooms splashed wayside , followed lickety - snag by white - blossom cornel . Spring beauty gave way to carpeting of wild mandrake , timberland phlox and larkspur .
mayapple with timberland phlox and Jacob ’s ravel .
Larkspur , Delphinium tricorne .
Cooper , Kylie , Molly and Story returned to their respective homes to get a glimpse of what spring had to offer in London and Bellingham . I ’m waiting for field of battle report on what their daffodils take care like , but Salvisa ’s never look better .
There was no stop spring in Kentucky . Everyone I ’ve enquire around here fit with the assessment of April ’s abundance . I have n’t met a naysayer yet , though I think when old timers used to preach the flipside of too much of a dependable affair . “ We ’re going to pay off for it , ” they would say . Heaven help us . sure as shooting , we can have onto this surprising outflow good for a few more hebdomad .
When the daffodils finished blooming in the bottom , they were comply by beaked corn salad , Valerianella radiata , that popped up voluntarily and keeps spread magnificently in the wet bottom it prefers . A record rain aid last yr . The leaf of this aboriginal annual have a pleasant-tasting lettuce - like tone . We mow the subject a month after the beaked corn salad is eat up blooming so as to allow the seed to mature and the daffodil foliage to go hibernating .
pick corn salad in Salvisa .
The “ spicily sweet-smelling , ” snowy - blossom witch alder , Fothergilla major , was planted intentionally in our garden 20 years ago . The golden tansy ragwort , Senecio aureus , muscled its way in ten years ago . The unassuming jaundiced daisy made itself at home along a built teetotal creek bed project and built by Bruce Carnahan for storm H2O drainage . I could n’t have woolgather up the plant combination but I was felicitous with the surprisal . The prosperous Senecio jacobaea is a great , aboriginal groundcover , even though some might argue that it is a weedy thug .
witch alder major and golden ragwort .
Mayapples with woodland phlox and Jacob’s ladder.
I play it secure to avoid a runaway caravan — the possibility of M of seed blowing by in every guidance . I cut most of the blooms as soon as before long they ’re finished . I do n’t mind a few singular seedling popping up . I am happy to haveFothergillaand a ribbon of floweringSenecio aureusparked at the railway station .
The dainty bloom of leatherwood(Dirca)and spicebush(Lindera)faded just as two sassafras trees began blooming for the first fourth dimension . I started the sassafras from seeds yield to me years ago by Bruce Eveslage . He collected them from his place across the Ohio River in Floyds Knobs , Indiana . One tree diagram is male person ; the other distaff — all important for seed set . I can already imagine a crop of dark blue seeds , hanging from promising blood-red stems .
baronial Boswell took me into the woods , across the river for a late good afternoon search for morels . baronial , a gifted woodsman with a sharp eye , said morels ( he calls them dry land Pisces ) could be found when the oak leaf are the size of a squirrel ’s ear . Noble ’s a pro . He found a dozen or so morels .
Larkspur, Delphinium tricorne.
I happen one .
My baby Nancy was visiting with her friend Meg . I cut my one morel into four piece and cooked them on the stovetop in olive oil with table salt and pepper . “ That ’s it ? ” they asked , guide the finger at their minuscule serving . Rose joined the laughter but they fit in : the miniscule mushroom splinter were tasty .
Sofia , Story , Salvisa , daffodils 040719
Beaked corn salad in Salvisa.
What a wonderful April .
May we all be blessed with sun - drench dreams of an eternal train ride of saltation bloom , splosh with a few extra morel .
Fothergilla major and golden ragwort.
