I'm sorry, did I say spring had sprung?

We have had such a wet, cool spring here in Boise. The highlight was without a doubt May 22, which just happened to be the date of our first BBQ of the year. This is what I get for trying to plan a BBQ 4 weeks in advance. But we only got in one BBQ last year and I really wanted to have people over before the Woodlands had baby numero dos. The morning was overcast but the rain held out. In the early afternoon the sky opened up as if Noah had just completed the ark. The temperature dropped and by 6 o'clock it was snowing. Yes, snowing. On May 22. The day set records for 1) the lowest high temperature and 2) the daily maximum rainfall. The record reported by the National Weather Service was 1.41 inches, which smashes the old, long-standing record of 0.57 inches set in 1965. Excuse me, but 1.41 inches is western Oregon rain, not Boise rain. Never ones to admit defeat, we held RainFest 2010 indoors and the Boyfriend valiantly BBQed our burgers outside. We had a great time, but the next BBQ will be planned for July or August and only far enough in advance that the 7-day forecast can still be consulted.

Although the weather has been cool, all the rain has really made the garden look great. The big news is that we've finished the 2010 garden expansion and it looks fabulous. I got the third raised bed in early in the spring, which was the only addition we really planned for this year. Then, prompted by a small flood in the back corner of our yard--compliments of our neighbor--we had to raise up the level of the soil behind the garden. The Boyfriend engineered a fantastic and structurally sound wall (my attempt had been to throw wet mud at the fence while cussing at the damn yippy dog) that holds a decent amount of new dirt and resulted in a large open garden bed. It gave us the space to do a few things we had no hope of doing in the existing raised beds. We planted melons, zucchini, beans, sunflowers, and corn. We've never grown any of these things and I can't wait to see how they turn out. The next order of business will be keeping the dogs out of the bed, which we inconveniently placed right in the path of their chihuahua chasing track. Ugh.

So, since my last post, we have actually been eating out of our garden. Our lettuce has done so well in this wet, cool spring, and we've had numerous salads from our own garden. It's so nice to wonder what to have with a meal only to realize we can go out and pick a salad anytime we want. Last night we had our first green onions out of the garden, which were quite beautiful if I do say so myself! That's all we've had so far, but hopefully peas and carrots won't be too far behind! The corn and sunflowers sprouted two days ago, which was probably the highlight of this week. The rain has continued to fall, but hopefully with the coming of June we've left the snow and indoor BBQs behind!