Violets and a Final Squash

This violet grew of its own accord next to our patio. Signs of spring! I like violets but they do spread like crazy and they are very hard to pull up when they grow where they're not wanted (like between the patio paving stones or in a potted plant). The plant above is safe because it's growing in a good place.

Yesterday felt amazing. Just staying home, reading on the couch, cleaning the house, being domestic. I needed that so much!

I've had a mental list of small projects that needed doing, and I was able to scratch off some of those -- like repotting the "Wandering Dude" (Tradescantia) cuttings I took when the painters came and we had to cut back our existing plants. Now we have two new Wandering Dudes, which thrills Dave, who thinks they are basically weeds.

I know, I know -- don't I keep saying we already have too many plants?

I also baked the last of our front-porch squashes, which has been cooling its heels (do squashes have heels?) in the closet under the stairs for the last four or five months. I pretty much forgot about it and only remembered recently that it was there. Fortunately, it's a very hard, durable squash -- a Japanese variety known as a kobucha. I read online about how to prepare it and took the simple route -- baking with olive oil, salt and pepper. I had a wedge at lunch yesterday and it's good, more dense than a butternut but creamy and flavorful. Some people liken the flavor to chestnuts, and I can see that.

My Rhipsalis cactus is blooming once again! (I could not figure out how to take this picture without getting myself in it.)

I downloaded the garden cam, which has spent the past week on the patio. You'll see Ronald the Rat, various birds and squirrels, and a couple of quick drive-by foxes. Also, Tabby and Pale Cat make separate appearances, sniffing around the area beneath the bird feeder where Ronald seems to appear most often. Let's hope one of them catches him. (Sorry, Ronald.)

The most interesting moment, to me, comes at 2:06, when we see two tiny dunnocks in the lower left corner of the screen doing something that looks like a courtship or mating dance. One rapidly flutters its wings and tail, and the other hops around frantically behind it. If there was ever consummation, the camera didn't record it, which is just as well. Let's give the poor dunnocks their privacy.

Also, the fox at the end looks like it's hunting, and then it runs away with something in its mouth. The prey doesn't look like Ronald -- in fact it looks like a dog treat. Maybe the fox had a treat or a bone buried near the patio. They have been known to hide food like that. Who knows?