I love having natural light in the kitchen during the day, thanks to the glass door to the garden. The Harlem kitchen was a dark tunnel. That kitchen also had a muddy brown marble countertop and I could never see if it was dirty or not - that might have been the whole idea, but it bothered me. Now we have a mix of butcher block on one side and ordinary formica on the other, but it's white; we do have to keep it dry, otherwise it can stain, but phew, visually it is a relief.
Forced hyacinths are being sold at almost every deli on nearby Court Street, now. I unpack them from their plastic pot, snip off most of the white roots, repot them in the cheap Turkish ceramic bowl above and give them a careful drink. They last about two weeks. At night their scent is so strong that I move them onto the sill of the little sash window in the kitchen so that we can smell supper.
The days are noticeably longer now, even though the biggest cold of our winter is coming our way, this weekend. The buds and bulbs that have emerged in our complicatedly mild winter are in for a bad shock.
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I have not had hyacinths since 1980. On the other hand I have gingers...
ReplyDeleteDreading the coming cold here as well. I wish we at least had a bit more snow to properly insulate all that has sprouted.
ReplyDeleteWe have cyclamen, amaryllis (two colors), hyacinths and paperwhites, lined up on our Vermont windowsills. We bring pots up from the root cellar every week or so, to keep a steady supply. We have finally gotten some decent snow and cold is headed our way as well. This has been an unsettling and odd winter for sure.
ReplyDeleteI looked for Hyacinths yesterday when I was off the mountain top and the only ones I found were nearly dead already - yours are gorgeous! Oh, the aroma of Hyacinths is just heavenly! And now you can plant them in your garden after they are done blooming so you can enjoy them next year as well!
ReplyDeleteMarie, I've also been thinking about my blueberries and the little cherry tree on my very exposed Bushwick terrace in this upcoming super-cold weather... is there anything I should do to protect them or just hope for the best?
ReplyDeleteHey Matt! Hm - I'm tempted to say hope for the best because they're pretty chilly right now. Have you noticed buds on them? It's the premature buds that worry me, not so much the shrubs as a whole, as they are very tough. It would not hurt to wrap them in light-coloured (not black - that'll heat them too much) plastic or in burlap, but it might be a little late in the game...
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