It's days like this I wonder if Spring will ever come

We had another 2-3" predicted for today.  There is easily over three feet of snow over most of my beds at this point, it's hard to believe that anything will come up in the spring at all, but I'm pretty hopeful that the cold will not have harmed anything but pests. 

I'm terribly eager to get out and start digging.  However, I just chucked a bunch of plant catalogs in this morning's recycle pickup because this is the Year of Gardening Austerity*, though I have to say that it's VERY tempting to buy hundreds of dollars worth of plants whose placement would be rather subject to what survives through the Extremely Cold and Snowy Winter of 2013/2014.

The Year of Gardening Austerity is thusly named not because we're spending a lot on our March wedding (first and only for both of us), but because I want to find out how much I have learned about propagation.  Many of my plants are at the stage of life where division will be necessary for continued health and beauty.  I'm also ready to try my hand at sticking cuttings of my dwarf shrubs: spirea 'Golden Elf' and weigela "My Monet" which have done quite well but look lonely as single specimens.  I also have a bunch of daylily seeds we saved - it should be interesting to see what sorts of hybrids we ended up with.  Bearberry looks like it'd be easy to layer.

My Red Drift carpet roses are screaming for a move from under the purple beautyberries which have grown bigger and better than I'd expected.  I still have to decide where they're going - they've got to go somewhere that is low traffic not because they can't handle a trampling (they can), but because they're anklebiters.  I can't get to them right now to start the process which starts with me pruning them way back, and then scoring around them with a spade to trim the roots so that I am not transporting a rootball the size of Rhode Island around my backyard.

I'm also looking forward to doing more work on the new shade beds behind the shed, to give my neighbors something to look at other than a big blank wall.  I put two plugs of ornamental grass back there last year after Broccoli Boy helped me dig up a huge clump of it from the front walk bed (I replaced it with a magenta mondarda (bee balm) - which the bees really do like) - they were doing well in autumn, we'll see (next month, maybe) if they made it through the winter.

In other news, the winter has shown us a lot of fauna that we normally don't see.  Birds like dark eyed juncos; and what I think is some sort of black and white warbler or perhaps a downy woodpecker; have been spotted at the feeder.  BB spotted what is probably a red bellied woodpecker, but I wasn't home to see it.

Yeah, there must be a garden under there somewhere...

The bittercress is lurking under a thick blanket of snow, getting ready to seed on me as soon as it melts, I'm sure.  I haven't gotten a chance to clean up the asparagus bed either.

Princess for a Day

I get to wear a sparkly gown, a teeny-tiny tiara; and have my hair and makeup done by a professional;

Such a departure from my normal everyday self, it's a good thing that a photographer has been hired to get pictures because no one would believe me otherwise.

Broccoli Boy cleans up nice too.

Wintery Winter of Winterness

My adventure with Japanese mushrooms

I'd gotten some bunashimeji (brown beech) mushrooms among others at H-Mart about a week or so ago.  I tried cooking up the cute little bunashimeji in some sesame oil and scallions, and it initially smelled good.  Then an odd smell started coming up as the mushrooms cooked - I tasted one and there was an off flavor to it too.  Even the addition of some soy sauce did not improve the flavor.  Into the trash it went, which annoys me - anyone who knows me knows I do not throw food away unless it's utterly inedible.

They didn't seem to be rotten in any way, no sliminess or bad smell in raw state.  The information I found says that they should last up to 10 days in the fridge, and I prepared them within that time.  I guess I just found a mushroom I don't like.  I did like the maitake ("dancing mushroom", hen of the woods) mushrooms I made the other day with steak even if I oversalted them.  Maitake are supposed to be quite good for the immune system.

Bunapi shimeji (white beech) was good in soup - which is odd because it's pretty much the same mushroom as bunashimeji, just as white button mushrooms, baby bella/crimini, and portobello mushrooms are the same species

Also yummy:  Enoki; Eryngii (King Trumpet, King Oyster) though Broccoli Boy was less than thrilled; and my much beloved Shitake.

And the people want:

Steak. 

It's been less than a week since the wedding invites went out in the mail, and the RSVP's have already started trickling in.  Over 90% that have come in have requested the sirloin with au jus over the chicken picatta or vegetarian meals.

Having been to a tasting, I thought the beef was good, but I liked the chicken better. This is a bit odd to me because I normally do not like white meat chicken due to its texture.  It could be the "JUICIEST" chicken breast ever, but there's something about the way it feels between my teeth as I chew it...

Herbs & Spices for Diabetes

http://www.rd.com/health/wellness/the-best-herbs-and-supplements-for-diabetes/

http://diabeteshealth.com/solutions/food/herbs/

Well, lessee, I've got fresh ginger, dried American ginseng, quite a bit of ground tumeric, and Szcheuan peppercorns readily available in the house.

Fenugreek looks like exactly what I need to help with my elevated cholesterol/triglycerides/liver enzymes which I do not want to take statins for.  Wonder if I can find some fresh leaves instead of just the seeds...