I love this time of year when the rains come and the last parched, barrenness of winter is washed away.

My gardens are so pretty right now, filled with flowers and flowering herbs: rosemary, cilantro, yarrow, comfrey, and sage. Hollyhocks and calendula are coming up, lemongrass sprouting, and my bell pepper and tomato plants are covered with tiny fruits.

The wild things are growing beautifully too. As I walk through the fields with my dog, Luna, I find the beginnings of creeping Winter Apple berries and heaps of wild plantain. I continue to pick the plantain to use in quiches, salads, and soups in my kitchen, but last week I picked a bunch to share with a friend who combines it with comfrey and other herbs to make healing balms to treat aching muscles. It’s such a lovely and versatile plant.

This past week I’ve been nurturing seedlings, spoiling them with rain water to get them strong and healthy before being transplanted into the gardens. This week I’ll plant them out, filling prepared beds with more tomatoes, Lebanese cucumbers, capsicums, and elderflowers.

I’ve also been sprouting oca – gorgeous little South American yams in vivid pink and orange – and Jerusalem artichokes, a gift from a dear friend. I’m so excited to get them planted and see how they do.

Yesterday was spent hauling hay, lots and lots of hay, getting our barn filled after our goats finished off the last of the winter hay. There’s something wonderfully satisfying about getting the bales stacked neatly, right up to the roof, knowing our goats will be well fed no matter what the weather does this summer.

After all that hard work, today was for resting and only doing pleasant things. We had brunch at a lovely cafe, found new plants for our gardens, then came home and pottered. I pressed play on a new audio book – “The Curse of the House of Fosket” by M.R.C. Kasasian – which I’m enjoying immensely, and wood-burned a couple of orders. My favorite piece is this custom design I did on a round cheeseboard/cutting board. It makes me smile.

We’ve been eating simply lately, fresh fruit and veggies and slices of our favorite grainy sourdough bread topped with sliced bananas or fried eggs or traditionally fermented Danish salami with ajvar or marinara sauce.

We’ve also been eating entirely too much pizza thanks to a rather hilarious mix-up on Friday night. We were both gone for the afternoon running errands in different cities, and decided to surprise the other with pizza for dinner. How we laughed when we both walked in bearing pizza boxes. On the bright side, I hardly did a lick of cooking all weekend!

Now it’s time to curl up with my book and read a few more pages before falling asleep.

What’s going on in your part of the world? xo