Nicest March ever?

We may not have been running through our sprinklers yet (as my friend Jena's kids were in Michigan!) but we have been SO happy with the warm weather! Our daffodils are coming out and we made our first visit of the year to Red Butte Garden.

Junie wasn't sure about sitting on the grass

She preferred to stand up using Sam's leg

It's so funny how they both duck their heads as they go through this snake-tunnel, even though they've got a good two feet of clearance. I suppose it's no different than the way Sam always ducks his head when we drive into a parking garage. :)

A hopping bunny!

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Early blooms at Red Butte Garden

Pink Magnolia

Things are slowly beginning to bloom. I love the way the color slowly sweeps over the garden.

This tree is amazing. In the Fall it was covered with yellow berries. Now, it has thousands of furry . . . what are they? The word "catkins" comes to mind.

I love these. They grow early and small like crocuses, but they look just like tiny irises!

More of them. Blues and violets.

She definitely has more hair than she used to

Also, better balance.

So tiny!

He looks like he is racewalking here. Did I ever tell you about the time I was roped into the racewalking event at a track meet? (I believe Beth participated as well?) The really embarrassing part is that I got second place.

Junie regarding the world with suspicion

I always love seeing what's happening behind the main subject of the picture (here, Junie looks patient)

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Cooking Hard-Boiled Eggs at High Altitude

I've read a million (no, really: a million) different methods for "perfect" hard-boiled eggs, ranging from vinegar in the water to old eggs to ice baths to whatever else. Many of them stress that you shouldn't really "hard-boil" the eggs, but instead bring them just to a boil and then let them simply sit in the hot water for a certain amount of time, to ensure the egg won't be rubbery. It sounds plausible, but none of these methods have ever worked reliably for me!  I haven't been able to find many methods that take high altitude into account, and maybe that's the problem.

Anyway, of course it ended up being my mom's method that works for me every time. I don't know why I kept looking online when I should have just asked her. (In fact I DID use her method when I was living at home, but later I forgot and sought "cooking experts" online instead. Let that be a lesson to me.) I make no promises, because each of those other million methods made promises: "this works every single time," "this never fails," "the shells come off in huge elegant pieces," "the yolks are buttery-smooth"---and each one of them STILL didn't work. Which tells me there must be a bunch of other variables involved.  But anyway, for anyone who is searching for how to cook hard-boiled eggs at high altitude (just in time for Easter!), this way works for me.

1. Put several eggs in a saucepan (try to pack them in fairly tight so they don't have too much room to roll around). Cover them with cold water, add some salt to the water, and put them on the stove over high heat.

2. Bring the water to a boil.  I had a cooking teacher who made us learn to hear the difference between boiling and non-boiling water in a lidded pan (so we didn't have to lift the lid and let all the heat out).  Anyway, stick around close so you can listen (or peek in) to know when the water starts boiling.  As soon as it does, put a lid on the pan (if it's not on already), turn down the heat to low, and set a timer for 12 minutes.

3. When the timer rings, turn off the heat, take the pan off, pour out the boiling water in the sink, and re-cover the eggs with cold water. (Do this a few times, since the hot pan will heat the cold water pretty fast at first.)  Let them sit in the cold water for 5 minutes or so.  You can then refrigerate them for later, or peel them.

4. When you do peel the eggs, do it under cold running water. I think this helps break the bond between the shell and that under-membrane beneath (?).
UPDATE: Sam actually thinks that peeling them under WARM running water works better, and I think I agree. We've had more success with this lately, anyway.

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Visit to the Abe-iary

The Aviary has $1 admission days on Wednesdays in the winter, so we nabbed the older boys from school and drove up for a visit.  Malachi was pleased that we were going to the Abe-iary ("It's so FUN for you there, Abey!" he said) and then even more pleased when he discovered that it was "a zoo for birdies" (Abe's concise explanation).  It was an absolutely perfect March day (63 degrees! I was in short sleeves!) and we had a great time.  It was truly worth the $1 (and yes, that's a veiled reference to how relatively small this place is). :)

Daffodils out?!

Do birds have faces? This sign seems very strange to me.

  

 

There were lots of great birds to see.  The photo-ops weren't great, since most were behind fences or wire mesh, but we loved the bald eagle---

 

the scarlet . . . ibi?--

 

and the toucans, to name a few.

 

I thought this guy was the cutest bird.

 

Come again, Pelican!

Four birdies.

Oops!  Five.

I can't forget this little Junie-lark!

SO happy about all the birdies.  (Owls, in this case.)

 

I always like peacocks.

 

But I've never (!) seen one spreading out his plumage before!  This was one of the coolest things we saw.  Malachi said the peacock must be trying to "trap" the female with his feathers (he meant "attract," I think) and everyone thought it was quite funny how she just ignored him.

 

It was interesting how concave the shape of his tail was when it was displayed like this. It made a nice little fan around his head and neck.

 

 

Very interesting from behind too. I've never known about those long, stiff feathers holding the "eye" feathers up. And his rusty tail feathers are pretty too.

 

Abe and Seb and Malachi wondered if, since the female peacock didn't stick around long, the peacock was mollified by OUR interest in him. "At least he knows we appreciated it," said Abe, as Ky called out "Thank you!" to our feathered friend.

 

 

These moveable bird sculptures were, as you can imagine, a big hit

 

And naturally, this friendly birdie also made several appearances during the afternoon, letting us pet him if we were very quiet and still.

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She walked around the world on her four fur feet

I have known many people who put shoes on their hands, but I've never before met anyone who first puts socks on their hands too!

Every day she gets all ready and then calls out "Bye! Have a great day!" which means she's going "off to school." She has all the essentials: her backpack, her lunch, and her blanket. I always make her give me a hug and a kiss before she goes.

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Contrasts

I know March is supposed to be a month of contrasts, but this one seemed particularly striking:

1:00 p.m.

10 p.m.

I won't complain, since it seems like last year March was all cold. I love the mild winter we've been having! I think we've been able to have at least one picnic in every month since last summer. Hooray!

This one was a nice picnic, even though a little mouse bit into our cheese (through the wrapper) when my back was turned:

She then examined each little dried leaf and bark chip with great concentration.

Hmm. Very interesting.

And then she departed to explore the big wide world, leaving a trail of leaves and twigs behind her

like a little snail.

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