In a hand-crafted nest with mohair curtains and valance!

I have had great success with fall-planted lettuce and kale.  This lovely salad bowl variety of lettuce came from a plant that went to seed in my garden last year.  I scattered the seed in a planter box.  Lots of seeds germinated and I transplanted them this spring when they were just tiny seedlings.  They have all done so well!  I have harvested lettuce every day since early May.  We are getting such great nutrition for free.  Generally, I harvest a few leaves from the bottom, but when I harvested this entire head of lettuce, it fill the sink it was so large!

Stormy is funny.  She has known only kindness her entire life.  However, she thinks it is funny to pretend she is afraid of me--run away!  I have a hard time capturing her to get sheared and this year, I was barely getting started when she escaped.  Look how funny she was with her half-hair cut!  Then, when I caught her again to finish shearing, she was so relaxed because it felt so good to get that itchy winter hair off of her.  She was so relaxed she almost went to sleep.

It is a tradition to plant peas and potatoes on St. Patrick's Day (March 17) and have the first crop of new peas and potatoes by Memorial Day (May 28).  I layered completed compost on top of a ring garden and poked some sticks in for the peas to climb.  We will see how it goes!

Mom and I used to force spring bulbs to bloom indoors for winter.  It was always a challenge to time it just right so they would bloom for Christmas.  I had great timing this year--I have several pots of flowers throughout the house with a taste of spring in winter.

Dolly the hen has a nest box made of English walnut, with a crocheted mohair valance and knitted mohair wallpaper.  Lucky girl!