Here are several photos of the Connecticut River behind our house. It has finally ceased raining, and when the sun peeked out about an hour ago, we managed to capture the rainbow over Cape Horn. The river is swollen and still rising. It hasn’t come over the embankment just below our yard yet, but it sure is getting close.

Last night, we went up to Lunenburg, Vermont (a 20 minute drive) to have dinner with Connolly and Elizabeth. As we sipped our glasses of chardonnay and munched on cheese and crackers, the snow began to fall, and then blow outside. Snow on May 25. Before it got dark, the white stuff had accumulated and there was a stark, surreal contrast between it and the green of the meadow and foliage.

I’ve spent my weekend so far baking, reading, and shopping for selected plants for the garden. Up in Lunenburg, I’ve already planted a few selected cold-weather crops such as spinach, peas, lettuce and radishes. But living up here in Zone 3, I would never dream of putting warm weather crops like tomatoes, eggplants or peppers outside before Memorial Day. This time around, even M.D. isn’t safe for that. Tomorrow, if the weather’s warm, I’m hoping that I can at least do some garden prep and maybe put in some broccoli. Pictured here are the little plants I bought yesterday: four different kinds of basil, sage, rosemary, celery, tomato, pepper and eggplant. I’ll probably keep them inside for another week or maybe even two.

Yesterday, I baked apricot-almond and cherry-chocolate rugelach, almond macaroons, and orange-cashew biscotti. This morning, apricot-ginger muffins and cherry-almond scones, photographed here.

And here’s what I’m reading in between all these oh-so-domestic activities:
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(I highly recommend it!)