MAY! Museum visits, revisiting the recipes learned from my King Arthur Baking classes, several trips to Ascutney (5) to work on cottage projects, and time spent in the garden... May comes to a close with very little time on the bike. It was a quick month. I hope the summer doesn't fly as fast.
After wrapping up 30 Days of Biking, I spent my first day off the bike in a very quiet Peabody Essex Museum. Visitor capacity was limited when I went, (I had to reserve a scheduled ticket online), but I enjoyed roaming the somewhat empty galleries at leisure. There are several terrific exhibitions going on now, including Salem Stories, highlighting 26 unique vignettes (from A-Z) of the city of Salem and Anita Quayyum Agha's All the Flowers Are for Me.
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| All The Flowers Are for Me |
The King Arthur Baking School offered online courses during the pandemic, and I learned several new recipes and techniques to improve my baking. Topping the list were soft pretzels, buttermilk biscuits, cream scones, empanadas, cream puffs and eclairs, lemon meringue cupcakes, raspberry and chocolate rugelach, and apple pie, (the latter of which I knew how to bake, but learned how to make my crust soooo much better.) The courses were really fun and I hope to take a class in person at the Vermont campus in the future. I highly recommend them!
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| Baking homemade eclairs |
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| Traditional cream scones |
Have drill, will build! I bought a new cordless driver and built a new garden bed this month. The rabbits are cute, (we have several who've set up permanent residence in the yard), but they destroy my garden. I have begun to replace some of my perennials with rabbit resistant varieties -- strawflower, salvia, and lupine -- and one of the raised garden beds with higher walls. (The price of lumber is insane right now.)
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| Building a new garden bed |
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| Hopefully too tall for rabbits |
The pandemic put several maintenance projects on hold at the cottage last year, which we all, (Mike, the boys, cousins, and sister) addressed this month. I ended up taking five day tips to Vermont, (too cold to spend the night), including one unforced error when I drove up with Will to paint, only to find out I left the paint at home. D'oh!
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| Maintenance projects in Vermont |
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Will and I took a day trip to do some painting...
I left the paint at home |
It's been a busy month! Hooray for Spring!
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Sweet discovery in the garden.
Chickadees? |
