My daughter got out early from school on Tuesday (parent-teacher conferences) so we spent an hour in Donaldson Park, a large county park on the edge of the Raritan River. I took a lot of photos, and I wanted to share a few.
Tree identification time! Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? It is growing right by the little pond in the park, and it doesn’t look very tall. The red buds attracted my eye.
Update: according to my local tree expert, the tree is probably a red maple. She said Middlesex County planted quite a few of those near the little “pond.”
For this sauteed mushroom salad, I used two kinds of mushrooms: baby bella and shiitake. You can choose any two types that are available to you. Shiitake mushrooms in particular have healing properties.
Ingredients:
2 boxes of mushrooms, 2 different types (shiitake and baby bella, for example)
1 tsp. olive oil
lemon juice to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 head of bok choy, chopped (optional – you can substitute other greens)
Sauté the mushrooms in the olive oil for about 15 minutes and until the juices of the mushrooms begin to flow. Add bok choy or other greens (chopped kale, chopped collards, parsley or cabbage are all possibilities to try). Add lemon juice, salt and pepper. Cook until the bok choy softens. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Michelle of Rambling Woods started a new meme called “Nature Notes.” I really like the idea. So I decided to divide “nature” into a few parts: flora, fauna, weather, and … everything else natural? water, dirt, air? I think her plan is for us to post on a Thursday. But I’m thinking about this now, so here goes:
Few flowers, other than crocus and snowdrops, have bloomed here yet.
But lots of green is popping its way out of the ground, such as my columbines and daffodils.
I saw a pretty red cardinal last week! I took a photo through the window, but it didn’t come out well, and I erased it.
I hope to visit the stream down the street from my home in the next few days to see how it looks.
It’s been alternately cold and warmish here. Today I wore my winter coat, and the sky was cloudy.
We often have a variety of birds visiting our backyard. A neighbor’s cat seems to like to lie in the corner near the fence.
I planted peas and radish on Sunday. The ground was easy to dig; I am optimistic about my spring garden.
I hope you will join in the Nature Notes meme. Even if you live in the city, there are still plants, animals and air! Right?
Mary asked that we post green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. I wanted to show my neighbors’ house, the neighbors from my childhood that were Irish and had a green and yellow house. But I couldn’t find my old photos in time. The ones I did find had way more orange than they were supposed to! Either I had a lousy camera in my childhood or I had negligible photography skills. Or both.
Instead, enjoy my columbines as they emerge from the ground. I hope to show their pretty blossoms in May.
For more Ruby Tuesday posts (usually photos with a bit of red or a lot of red, but this week, expect green), visit:
Such a joy that my neighbor’s crocuses are blooming! (Two points for anyone who can pluralize crocus in a different way, without looking it up in Google, no cheating!)
For some reason the orange ones have opened up before the purples.
Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.
In June this branch will be covered with little pink roses.
