Dirt, glorious dirt!!

 I had forgotten that the new dirt was finally going to be delivered this week; what a great way to start the morning! We ended up using 12 yards to fill in this area level with the terrace and then refill the 3 raised planter boxes. This is totally the East button to have it blown in rather than endless wheelbarrow loads. Plus they use a leaf blower to make it look all tidy afterward. 

The view from the new retaining wall we assembled from rocks already onsite. Of course the kids came out and stepped in it almost immediately so it did not remain pristine looking for long. 

And the raised beds. Now I need to transplant Back into the beds the few things I was able to save earlier. I think Little Miss and I will go shop for some vegetable starts to catch us back up this season. I signed up for a virtual workshop for fall planting so we’ll try some seeds too. 

This morning I also tried out coddled eggs. A friend has given me one when we were housemates I. Our early 20s and I tried it once or twice unsuccessfully. I came across a recipe for them in the Outlander cookbook Mr. W bought me when I made bangers and mash on the day the Portland Highland Games would have been held last month.

 I didn’t get the timing quite perfect. I ought to have had everything else ready and served immediately because I think they keep cooking in the coddler. But still delicious. Mr. W and I had a little breakfast on the deck admiring our new dirt.

St. Mary Magdalene Day

I feel like it has been a long time since I have done anything for my patron saint’s day. I tried to make it a priority this year, but it ended up only going half way. I did manage to make the Magdalenbokt, or Magdalene fingers which O made the very first time Zi celebrated this back when we lived at the Laburnum Bungalow. (I managed to have white sanding sugar on hand this time instead of pink. 😆) I’m always saving recipes for different madeleines, and yet I never remember this idea and default to my copy of Cooking With the Saints which has two almond themed desserts in it. Maybe I’ll remember next summer? Or maybe I’ll try the pumpkin ones this fall and that will trigger me doing it properly next July.



In any event I did get the cookies made and set out a humble tea table outside.



I did not have the memory or energy to get the little Magdalene icon I bought this Lent in advance of Easter. 

My mom happened to be dropping by with some birdseed at about the same time so she socially distanced a cookie for herself. Little Miss was
 not at all interested in having her picture taken. But look at how long her hair is getting!

My Mary Magdalene rose is also in bloom which is nice. It was my intention to have a little bouquet of these for our tea, but I didn’t manage to get that together either.

Quarantine Stations of the Cross

My big plan for the week was to take the children to The Grotto today to do an outdoor Stations of the Cross. I have done it before and I figured that it would be okay since we are still allowed to go for walks even the though Governor Brown has the state in a Shelter In Place order. But when I decided to double check that we could get into the grounds at The Grotto today their website stated that the grounds are closed too in addition to all the regular Masses being cancelled. Sigh!

So what to do? I really needed to get these kids out of the house for some sort of field trip. I decided to quickly cobble together a Scripture/Marian Garden Stations that we could do in our own yard. Some of my ideas I don't actually have in our garden so we did some substituting. And keep in mind I whipped this together in about 30 minutes while being asked "when can we play video games?" about 47 times. Sigh!

1. Pilate Condemns Jesus to Death @ the laurel hedge. Pilate was the Roman governor and Romans liked wreaths of laurels, right? So technically mine is English laurel and not the bay laurel of the Romans.
2. Jesus Accepts His Cross @ a cedar, pine, or cypress tree. The Wood of the Cross is said to have been made from these three trees. We have none of them so we met at a Doug fir sapling.
3. Jesus Falls the First Time @ T-Bone's vine maple. I have three children and our landscape designer specified 3 vine maples for our yard. Naturally I named each of the trees after each of my children. We met at the oldest tree. I think if one has 3 of anything in their yard it would be good for consistency, especially if it is deciduous and has leaves that 'fall' in the autumn.
4. Jesus Meets His Sorrowful Mother @ the Statue of St. Mary. This is self explanatory, yes?
5. Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross @ the Statue of St. Francis because I figured he would be a good substitute. St. Peregrine statues would also suffice.
6. Veronica Wipes The Face of Jesus @ a patch of veronica or other purple ground cover
7. Jesus Falls the Second Time @ Deuce's vine maple
8. Jesus Speaks to The Women @ the fig tree. I went out on a limb here. 🤣 Fig trees are definitely part of a Scripture Garden and since we happen to have one I wanted to include it. Eve eats the apple in the Garden of Eden getting them thrown out of Paradise causing Adam and Eve to realize they are naked and they use the fig leaf to cover themselves. Then I sprinkled a little patriarchy on top and got fig leaf = women.
9. Jesus Falls for The Third Time @ Little Miss's vine maple.
10. Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments @ the rose garden. He was left with just a cloth and that Crown of Thorns. A holly, Oregon grape, crab apple, barberry, or other thorny plant would work as a substitute here or for station #2.
11. Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross @ primrose (or other 5 petaled flower.) The five petals represent the five wounds Jesus received during the crucifixion. Alternatively one could use lily of the valley which is Mary's tears, but mine hasn't even sprouted yet.
12. Jesus Dies On The Cross @ the dogwood tree. The dogwood the Good Friday flower because there are 4 petals like the cross and the tips of the petals have what look like little rusty nail holes on them.
13. Jesus Is Taken Down From The Cross @ a patch of dandelions. Dandelions are Mary's bitter sorrow, also the leaves as a good food to eat during Holy Week.
14. Jesus Is Placed In The Tomb @ the door under the front porch. This is the most cave like place I have in our garden. I also considered meeting by the passion flower  for this Station, but I haven't weeded over there yet and I'm not sure how that baby plant is doing yet. A rock garden could also be an alternative. My first thought was the garage door, but thought better of it. 

Tween super excited about Quarantine Stations. Laurel is so hard to manage; I always feel like I'm in the trash compactor in Star Wars with the hedge pressing in on me. Hoping we can get this all removed this summer.

The T-Bone at his vine maple for the 1st fall.

At the Marian garden for the 4th Station. (I still need to dead head those hydrangeas!)

At the fig tree for the 8th Station. We're starting to get a little silly here. I told the younger two they could bring out a stuffed animal as long as they didn't get distracting.

The rose garden for the 10th Station. (Totally needs to be weeded and pruned.) We decided to switch up our cross bearer at this point.

The nice thing is that we did a lot of walking back and forth between the front, back, and side yards so they got some energy out. This is the dogwood tree for the 12th Station. It is right outside of Deuce's window where his school desk sits so we have been tracking the little blooms to see if they will be fully opened by next Friday. (I'm guessing not this year.)

Fortunately (unfortunately?) we always have dandelions in the lawn so I knew this would be a possibility for the 13th Station.

We used under the historical front porch for our tomb. Roll away the lattice? 

In the Garden for the Annunciation

We weren't able to cancel our spring break cabin at Black Butte so we transferred our quarantine to achieve cabin fever in the mountains. When we returned home the first thing I did was walk the children through our yard to check out what had popped up while we were away for 5 days. (Also I really didn't want them going from a few hours in the car straight to play video games.)

The Mount Hood daffodils in the Marian Garden are up and looking very happy. I think I need to move the statue of St. Mary to be in front of the white fuchsia (or I ought to have cut it back in the fall.) The Marian name for daffodils is Mary's Star.

Also some of the petite peachy daffodils are up although they are not as robustly growing as the Mt. Hoods.  One of my purple pink Lenten roses in the background.

Under the fig tree is an eruption of violets or Our Lady's Modesty. It is associated with the Annunciation because of St. Mary's humility when the angel Gabriel told her she would be the Mother of God. I just love how these Marian flowers tie in the season of the bloom with the holy day or feast day. I think the little grassy spikes are camas flowers which have self seeded (exciting!!) or maybe native blue eyed grass? I will have to keep an eye out on what develops here.

And look at this happy patch of native wild ginger! Look at that bloom! I don't think I have ever noticed them blooming before, but it is such a subtle color and it is such a humble, modest plant itself. I'm thrilled at how things are establishing themselves in the native hedgerow bed.

Lastly I read a page on the Annunciation from Tomie de Paola's Mary The Mother of Jesus book.

Lent in the garden

I have been quite remiss about pruning and dead heading this winter. In spite of all that though the garden is looking quite cheery right now. The Lenten roses are coming up as are the crocus. Since my favorite color is purple, and it is also the color associated with Lent, I have quite a lot of purple varieties. They are a tricky cut flower; they tend to drop quickly.

One of the white varieties in the Marian Garden. (Evidence of me not deadheading the hydrangea or cutting back the fuchsia.)

I had planted a bunch of white crocus in the Marian Garden, but they didn’t have a good showing yet.  Or maybe there just isn’t enough sunlight in that part of the yard this early in the year. This little cluster in the front perennial bed was very happy this year. The yellow crocus are for St. Valentine, but they hadn’t bloomed yet on his day. 

And because it is Lent I had the opportunity to try one of the seafood recipes I have collected for the season. This is a crab fettuccini.