Tiny wins but so many losses

Much of March has been wet and cloudy, but we've had a few sunny days. We managed to work and till the garden. We planted two rows of potatoes and one row of onions.

On the few dry days we've walked the property to inspect our trees. After a late hard frost we noted some damage to many of the pomegranate trees in the orchard, peach and green plums dropped most of their fruits, and a third of the persimmon trees within the garden had black withered tips that were green the days before.

The frost wasn't the only damage we had this month. We've had a martin hurdle the front fence twice and his count is up to four hens. It's not all bad news. We have three new mama hens sitting and we are still averaging 10-14 eggs a day.

Despite the soggy weather we have plenty of blossoms keeping the bees and butterflies fully occupied.

Art built a new mini greenhouse from scraps around the homestead for our seedlings. All was going well until a few weeks later we had an intruder, possibly a mole or mouse, make a mess of our twice planted heirloom tomato and pepper seeds. Fingers crossed we can at least put a few in the ground soon.

Not all doom and gloom, we have young grafted apple trees that have taken off and will flower this year.

Our loquats have surviving fruits. They should be ripe in the next month or so. It will be our first year of production. Have you tried a loquat?

And despite the frost loss of some kiwi blossoms we have a few remaining. Fingers crossed our four year old kiwis will finally produce.

A few sugar plums, quince and cherries have just started to open and the pears have all bursted.

We did manage to squeeze in a bike ride to the lake between the rain. A rainbow popped up just before we were heading home. Taking a time out to recognize that having a lake a 10 minute bike ride away is a luxury and that we need to utilize it more often. By foot, bike or car it's definitely worth the view and the migratory birds keep it endlessly entertaining.

And birds. Well March did not disappoint. Our best of shots of the month.

The Orchard Guard Tower had a few visitors in March. I think it's not a biased statement that we have something pretty cool here. We love hosting. If you are planning a trip to Albania let us know or book with us at www.OrchardGuardTower.com

It's almost time for the Good Friday community pilgrimage walk from the church to the cross that sits directly behind our homestead.

We walk this path a few times a month and it honestly never gets old. We love the views from up top out to the lake, the town, Mokset hills and of course mountains.