Asparagus!

Around the middle of April, when the days get longer and warmer, you start seeing cars stopped on the sides of the roads.  You see people shuffling through the brush carrying bags.  You hear them off in the woods as you walk on the Rilke Path.  Then you see what they are looking for coming from the middle of the spiky plant:  Asparagus!  Fresh, wild, asparagus!

Tom spent days collecting it on his morning walks.  Each plant sends up one, or maybe two, stalks of asparagus.  Luckily, there are about a million plants around here, so you can fill a bag in no time!

The asparagus is much thinner than the stuff you buy in the store--the biggest pieces were as big around as a ballpoint pen, and the smallest the size of a pencil lead.

Of course the best part is eating it.  Traditionally, they eat it with scrambled eggs.  We had asparagus frittatas once and risotto another time and both were delicious!  I even ate it raw, but Tom opted against that. 

In any case, it was delicious!  And it's a good thing we like it.  The asparagus season is over, but our freezer is full of enough to last through the summer.  If you have any good recipes for asparagus, please send them to us!

Spring weekend do-over

Here you are, anxiously awaiting the pictures from the beautiful trip we took to Croatia last week (if you read my last post, you know what I'm talking about).
Unfortunately, those pictures don't exist.  I'm sure the place IS beautiful, but we never made it.  First, there was the fog so thick that you couldn't see 3 meters in front of the car.  Not fun for driving on a highway in a rental car in a country where you aren't even completely sure you have permission to drive the rental car.
Then, there was rain.  Not a little rain, not wait an hour and it will get better kind of rain, but relentless rain.  Then Tom got sick.  That was strike three, and we came back home.  Our long weekend found him on the couch, me making chicken soup and cleaning the house.  And it rained all weekend.

So this weekend we tried a spring weekend do-over.  No long weekend meant no long trip, but no rain meant we could actually go outside!!
Friday we went car shopping.  If all goes well, we will be proud new owners of a tiny (by US standards) Fiat Punto by the end of this week.  This will give us the freedom and flexibility to explore more of Italy and Europe, and go out to dinner once in a while.  We can't wait.
Saturday was our birding day.  We started early in the morning, and by the end of the day found 91 species!  The bird highlights were watching spoonbills feed and seeing a Eurasian Oystercatcher.  I also like to keep track of the other wildlife we find--this time there was a snake, frogs, turtles, horses, deer, dolphins, and the biggest rabbit I've ever seen.
Sunday was our urban day and we visited Udine, a nearby city, for the first time.  We wandered around, had a little coffee, and window shopped (stores in Italy tend to be closed on Sundays).  Then had the BEST gelato we've had yet (I'm not exaggerating), and came home in time to do a little gardening.
So, our first weekend of spring ended up being a week later than we expected, and the activities weren't what we expected, but it was great fun anyway.  Here's hoping the sun sticks around for a few more days. . .