Our white crabapple trees bloomed last week. The flowers were suddenly bursting in small groups, like strings of popcorn wrapped haphazardly along the branches. The delicate arms of the tree danced and buzzed, alive with bumblebees moving from flower to flower, their legs fat with yellow pollen. There’s nothing so good as this – the springing forth of life – and the beauty of it filled my chest and I thought, how can I move on from this? How can I step away from such rapture to continue in any task but marveling at the tender beauty of our world? How can I be eager for anything but to find my place here with the bees? And so I did for awhile, find my...
Spring has finally arrived at the farm and with it a few animal fix-its. One of our barn cats, Oscar, got bit in the hind leg by a stray cat. I didn't know this of course, I only knew that he was limping quite badly. I was afraid that he had broken a bone or pulled a muscle or something- what do I know about cats? Joel and I debated what to do about it but in the end I had become too attached to the darn thing and couldn't stand to watch him suffer. We took him to the vet and since I knew they'd have to sedate him for an examination we decided to get him neutered while...
We did it! We grew lots of garlic. We diligently followed the directions of those we reached out to for advice and tips and youtube videos and are pleased with the fact that it WORKED! We got the garlic in the ground quite late compared to other garlic farms and we thought for sure that was going to sink us, but the garlic seems to be flourishing. There are a couple rows that have a dead spot in the beginning where the garlic didn't grow and the guesses are that we planted it too deep there, or put too much hay mulch on top, or the land is slightly uneven so maybe the water drained more quickly away from those bulbs....
There are a few peculiarities in nature that you can't walk by without touching. Pussy Willows are one. Cattails another. Various mushrooms, especially those growing on trees. Fuzzy caterpillars. Moss.
My heart tightens when I see their tiny tired faces poke around the door and as they find their way in the dark to their place and sink down between the two halves of the sleeping bag
