February 20

KJo, you are making me extremely spring-sick! I'm going to plant a little lettuce garden inside today, as there isn't any dirt visible anywhere - even the driveway where Stan scraped it down is ice and hard packed snow. And we pretty much missed that last snow, only about 8 or 10 inches over the two days. It is supposed to warm up into the upper 30s today with bright blue skies and sunshine. Maybe it will melt some of it down.

I've raised celery for a few years. I freeze it every year for soups. I've never tried drying the leaves, just chop it all up and toss it in a freezer ziplock and take out what I need as I need it. It does have a lot more flavor than any you can buy, and it is really simple to raise - plant, harvest when ready. I don't worry about tying it to make the hearts white - that just seems like a lot of work for nothing.

Mary, I gave my grandson a quick tour of some of the photos you've posted and I have to tell you, living here in the very settled hills of western NY we are both mightily impressed by the size of the country you live in. There isn't anywhere around here where you could get a shot like that of the two elks. He asked how big an elk was and when I told him, I could see all the gears turning - His eyes got big and he was just about speechless.

take good care
kathleen