Did someone say.....tulips?

Yes, the heat is on. Not the real heat---that remains elusive and distant, a vague memory with no clear beginning or end. What I mean is the heat of tulip season, the race to keep up with the blooming beauties. Once they begin to color up, there is no more time to savor my cup of coffee, no time to sleep ten more minutes, no time to drool over hot canadian speed skaters looking so good in those unitards.

Must pick the tulips! I've taken to driving around town with them in the back seat after havesting. They are such partying fools. Our neighbors out in Roxboro have no idea what to make of it.

Eno River

If only every day could be an Eno day.

And so it begins.....

Despite the cold, despite the gloom, despite the wet, despite my moods, our tulips have begun to bloom!!!

Major setback today: our driveway becomes impassable. That's right, as in, no way jose, good luck chuck, you are not going to make it more than 60ft down our 1500ft driveway. We've been fishtailing for weeks and on Sunday afternoon, after tucking in our all babies for the evening, Stuart and I got stuck. disheartening? yes. demoralizing? yes. And the driveway just gets worse. On the brighter side, it is going to be a whopping 50 degrees on Friday. Right before it rains some more on Monday.

Sunday is for love

A great day for a walk at Duke Gardens, one of my favorite places. A few varieties of camellias were blooming. I had never seen a peony type center before. It was a lovely deeper red color too. Mmm. The himalayan yew also caught my eye as a great evergreen. It was too short a walk but I'm so glad we made the trip. We're going to have to go back in May when peak bloom is happening.

Color and Form

Wet is the Wet

Despair is creeping in. As the water rises, and keeps rising, so my bearings slip and the more I feel like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche, New York. Losing my #%@t! Time has been frozen even though things keep happening, keep changing. Keep growing.

To mention a few of the greater things.....

*We went out to see a play last week, All My Sons by Arthur Miller at the Playmakers theater in Chapel Hill. WOWOWWOW. It was an amazing production, very powerful very sad. If you can go this week, GO.
*We saved ourselves hundreds of dollars, maybe more, by having the great epiphany to use Stuart's parents' old bathtub for our guest bathroom---it looks awesome and to top it all off it's freakin' Carolina Blue. What more could I ask for?
*The ranunculus as shooting up buds. I'm not getting my hopes up too high seeing as how our other hoophouse flowers have been acting up, but it is slightly thrilling, especially considering we are growing chocolate colored stems. I think my heartbeat just sped up thinking about the color. Or was that a physiological reaction to the word chocolate?
*The delphinium are looking like little giants, arms arched, ready to will themselves into this wild and crazy world. Bloom tall ladies. Strong and tall, and keep it real.

*The eating is good. As it should be.

As a side note, we got a lovely email over the weekend from some folks who would like to start farming in a few years who had some questions for us. Somehow that email was deleted, so please resend!!!

Windows ARE IN!!!

For Leah, for whom the flowers grow

Breathe Easy

Amazingly enough, there was no snow damage on the farm. The 2 x 4 braces worked! We got around 8 inches on the farm and it is a beautiful sight. The roads have been
treacherous though, and it took two attempts in our 4wheel drive truck to make it over to our farm. Things in our greenhouse were drying out fast so I'm glad we made it when we did. We are thrilled to see the bells of ireland are germinating; we haven't had these germinate since '06.
You can see the new shed that Stuart and Gerard put together. This is going to be a much-needed tool shed located close to our cultivation fields. We are now ready to debut the inside of our second hoophouse. We are still in shock that it hasn't been planted yet, but the weather has been rough this winter. Extremely wet and very cold. So perhaps in March and April we will have loads of veggies??? Since we've been snowed in, Stuart and I have played a million games of ping-pong for our cardiovascular workouts and strength training. Gotta get ready for the season somehow, right? I am thrilled to announce the fact that I won my first (and as of yet, only) game against my husband. I have now entered the realm of lightning speed reflexes, ace serves, line shots, and everlasting rallies. Watch out brother Ben, you are next.