Salle visited today and washed my kitchen floor while I made lunch. Homemade French fried potatoes, lemon herb tilapia, salad with avo, and especially requested by Herbie, shrimp with made from scratch cocktail sauce. I've never tried cocktail sauce so had Salle try it, and she thought it was great but there wasn't enough horseradish in it for Herbie. He thought it was so-so. Later I added more, together with some other herbs and spices. Now let it meld and see if he approves. Rather difficult to make something you have no idea how it's supposed to taste. I like tartar sauce with my seafood, not cocktail sauce.
Yesterday I eventually got out into the berry garden ! The weedy wacker worked overtime, and I only took the electric fence down twice with the machine by mistake :). Was nice having Herbie around to fix it first, it was dripping fuel out the carburetor. Have a huge tripple blister on the palm of my left hand, and I'm sort of walking like a cripple. But nearly the whole area is clear, can see the 6 blueberry bushes, 1 bought blackberry, 3 elderberries, 10 grapevines, only found 8 asparagus poking out the ground, hoping the other 21 that I planted make an appearance soon, but we're short about 2 inches of rain for April. Then it looks like only 3 lavender bushes are still out there :(. The comfrey is unfurling new leaves, thank-you Teri, the tarragon is popping out everywhere I planted it, thank-you Salle. The strawberry patch is huge ! Last year I tacked the white plastic from the hay bales out on the ground to kill all the weeds and stuff. Plan on moving the strawberries further up the hill to where the plastic is, and have another 10 blueberry bushes coming, plus hopefully 25 new starts for concord grapes leafing in buckets in the mud room, thank-you Bill. One of the geese is laying smack-bang in the middle of the tangle of chicken wire and stakes in the berry garden from where the perimeter wire was taken down. Suppose I will have to take the 2 eggs already there. Not sure which goose, either a White Chinese, a Toulouse, or maybe a mix, as I haven't seen the lady responsible. Have some interest in goslings so it's a good thing there are currently 3 girls sitting, 2 greys, one white.
Seasaidh is doing so well, but she's tiny and looks much more Jersey than Scottish Highland. Unfortunately, milk owners are cutting down on their needs, seems to always happen in the early part of the year. Less coffee and comfort food, less time to fiddle with cheese making. So think I'm looking for some additional owners. But, there is some demand for yoghurt, so maybe I should ensure a steady supply, maybe make it plain so everyone can add what they like.
Herbie also made sure my chainsaw is working, so I can get out there and cut up some of the fallen wood. We went looking for morels again, no luck. That rain is really needed, a good, farmers' rain. a