Spinach

I won't be harvesting spinach much longer.  Once the weather heats up, spinach bolts and goes to seed.  
I cut it and put it into a bucket.  Then I go to the hydrant and fill the bucket with water, lift the spinach out of the water into the other bucket, cover with water... repeating the process until the water is clean when I lift the spinach out.  
My mother must not have liked spinach, because I don't recall her ever raising it in her gardens, nor Grandma either, for that matter.  They often grew mustard greens, but never spinach.  Mother never bought it in the store and cooked it, either.  I was probably in my thirties before I finally tasted spinach.  Cliff and I both love it, and have it often as a side dish.  
Speaking of my mother's gardens, she raised some crops that seemed quite adventurous to me.  Popcorn, celery, peanuts, parsnips... things not everybody bothered with.  My parents' gardens were a team effort, actually.  Daddy enjoyed the plowing and tilling and planting.  Both of them picked the beans and tomatoes and other vegetables, and Mother canned and pickled and made sure nothing went to waste.  


I heard wild turkeys gobbling in the distance all the time I was harvesting my spinach.  
I finally have some female hummingbirds.  Once they raise some babies, I'll be going through lots of sugar trying to keep up with them all.  I haven't been putting much in the feeders so far, because the nectar spoils in four days or so, and then I just have to pour it out, clean the feeders, and put fresh stuff in.  Every time I'm at Walmart and see red hummingbird nectar for sale at a ridiculous price, I just wonder who is silly enough to buy it.  I put eight cups of water in a jug, add two cups of sugar, stir until the sugar is dissolved, and put it in the refrigerator.  As long as I keep it fresh, the birds have never turned it down.