The last frost date for Dallas is officially March 15th. Since summer has officially arrived here, it looks like our spring was barely three weeks long.

It is hot here. I took my long run (19 miles) yesterday at 7:30am, and it was getting warm at the end (75° ), but tolerable. Today Ed and I went out to breakfast and were surprised to find Swiss Avenue blocked for a marathon. I didn’t know there was a marathon this weekend; the major Dallas marathon is the White Rock Marathon in December. Anyway, those poor runners. It was much warmer today, and windy. By the time the runners at my pace finished, if indeed any did, it was about 90°, with winds of 21mph. Ugh. We gave in Friday and used our air conditioner for the first time. Up until now we’ve managed with opening the windows at night when it’s cool. Other years we’ve been able to hold until sometime in May, but not this year. Ninety-five percent of the state is also already in drought.

Driven in part by our next-door-neighbors putting their house on the market, Ed and I have been on a yard improvement binge. We’ve been gardening and adding solar lights and furniture. Everything is looking great just in time for stay-inside-with-the-air-conditioning season. Here is part of the little zen garden I made in the back. It has a stone path through two beds of Lysimachia Nummularia, some rocks, some rusty things, and a Japanese maple.

Now that it is spring and asparagus may be in season where you are, you should try this recipe for Straw and Hay Fettuccine Tangle with Spring Asparagus Puree from the cookbook “Super Natural Cooking”. This asparagus/spinach sauce is really good and refreshing, much lighter than pesto. And, it freezes very well. I freeze it in a muffin tin just like pesto. Another way to use it is in risotto. I make my baked risotto, and then at the end toss in two pucks of this sauce that I’ve let defrost at least somewhat. Then I top it with some shaved cheese and additional roasted nuts. Easy! By the way, I use roasted blanched almonds instead of pine nuts because I like them better and they’re cheaper, and I also sometimes use asiago as the cheese. And note that only part of the nuts actually go into the puree, I sometimes forget that. Try it!