Spring

I sauntered around the yard today, taking in the sun and looking over what is going on with my plants. I was pleased to see that everything has survived the winter, and seems to be thriving this spring.

This is our little sapling peach tree in the front yard. It has some pretty blossoms on it. I don't recall what sort of peach tree it is, but must be an early something-or-other, because the peach trees in the back yard (Hale, I think??) don't have any blossoms at all yet.

The strawberries are springing to life again. Not a ton of blossoms yet . . . we'll take what we can get. We need to move the plants to another spot in the yard where they will do better. Not sure yet where that spot is, so they will stay here in the front yard until we find a good place. Maybe the neighbor kids will stay out of them for a change, but probably not.

This is one of my favorite herbs - oregano. I think it has a really pretty leaf and smells OH. SO. DELICIOUS. It is really starting to spread out.

Chives. I planted these last spring and kept forgetting they were there and the kids weeded them up more than once. I'm really glad to see they are still there! Past experience tells me these will really spread out and take over if I'm not careful. But they have a really pretty purple flower if I let them flower. You can see a bud on the ground that I cut off today. I generally don't allow them to flower. If they are flowering, you can be assured it's because I've gotten lazy.

English thyme in the foreground (it's really huge and needs to be divided. If you need/want some thyme, PLEASE come get some of mine), then the rosemary, then the oregano. The chives are behind the oregano, but don't show up well. I really believe that my yard should work for me, not the other way around, and that's why I grow herbs in the front yard where more normal people would plant flowers. What do flowers have to offer me? I can't mix them into bread, pizza sauce or a marinade now can I?

In another part of the front yard, where I think I have finally killed the parsley, there is a little plant growing. It's probably a weed, but doesn't really look weed-ish. I haven't dug it up yet because I wanted to wait to see if it turns into something. I expect it will just turn into a bigger weed, but just in case, we'll leave it there for the time being.

We had hoagies for ddinner tonight. It was just the right thing on a nice warm day like today. I made the hoagie rolls, and mixed in, of course, garlic and fresh chives. They turned out really good, but needed more garlic. I think I would baste them with a garlic/butter mix while baking rather than add more garlic to the dough. I'll report back when I have tried that out.

In other boring news, I served as a delegate at the Utah County Republican Convention on Saturday. I had really studied up on the candidates in all the races, and went to the convention on Saturday with my mind made up in all the races except 2. I was able to find both of the candidates in one of my "open" races, and spoke to both of them about a few things, but still hadn't made up my mind until they gave their speeches. My other "open" race I just couldn't decide, both candidates were so evenly matched. I finally chose one, but felt confident that the other one would do an excellent job as well. Well, 2 of the races, 2 of the races I felt were the most important, didn't go my way. In each, one of the candidates earned enough delegate votes to not have to have a primary race and left the candidate I thought was the best out in the cold. I felt badly for them, because they had campaigned well and, in my opinion, were well suited for the job.

I have never served as a delegate before, and this was quite an interesting experience. I would do it again in a minute, and also encourage others to do it. I learned a lot and made some new friends along the way.