Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox, the official beginning of spring. Leading up to it, we had a week of unstable weather. It was warm, then it was cold, then warm, then cold, and finally on the equinox, warm again. Within a few days we had nights as cold as 12° and at least one day when we hit 57°. We had several spells of roaring winds. We had snow, sleet, freezing rain, and even a bit of sunshine. The snow, at least at the lower elevations, is almost gone. I have one or two patches left in my yard. The biggest remaining patch is on my asparagus bed, of course. That will change in the week ahead as a longer spell of mild weather arrives. Now comes the season of mud as the frozen earth thaws out. But I’d much rather have mud than snow and ice.
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| One of the nastier days last week. |
I got some garden work done during the warmer days last week. I’ve been saving cardboard to use as a barrier to prepare a new pumpkin patch. The cardboard, when laid on the ground, blocks the sun and kills the sod under it. On Wednesday Miriam and I laid out the cardboard. I thought I had saved a lot, but it only covered an area 15 square feet, not nearly enough for the pumpkin patch I’ve envisioned. We weighted the cardboard down with rocks to keep the wind from blowing it away. It rained on Thursday, which helped soften the cardboard, which was a good thing. Thursday night the wind was terrific. I went out Friday morning half expecting to find the cardboard blown away, but was happy to see it all still in place. I will get more cardboard and increase the size of the patch. I won’t be ready to plant pumpkins for another seven weeks.
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| Cardboard on the future pumpkin patch. |
Yesterday, with the temperature at 55 and the sun shining brightly, I went to work in the garden. I spent several hours raking out flowerbeds. They were full of matted, soggy leaves that were smothering the little shoots that were trying to come up. The yellow crocuses are blooming and there are hundreds of other shoots emerging that were hidden under the leaves. After I’d raked out the beds, Stacey and Hannah came out and gathered up all the piles of leaves for the compost. It felt so good to be out in the garden doing something a little strenuous. Of course, this morning I’m feeling the results of my labors with sore muscles. But I can’t wait to get out there again and do more hard work.
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| The long boarder partly cleaned up. |
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| Raked out garden beds. |
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| Yellow crocuses. |
Yesterday we also began our indoor Spring Cleaning. Miriam spent the day scouring the kitchen from top to bottom. She also was baking while she was cleaning. She’s a good multitasker. I cleaned the music room. Stacey steam cleaned the floors. I love Spring Cleaning. Over the next weeks we will do more – dusting, cleaning out closets and cupboards, getting rid of unneeded and useless items. It makes me happy.
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| Miriam's sourdough bread. |
Last week, with most of the snow finally gone from the lawn and gardens, I was able to assess winter damage more fully. The most destructive pests on my property during the winter are cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) and meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus). Rabbits and voles love to chew on the bark of my young fruit trees. Most of my trees are big enough now to escape their damage, but one apple tree was still small enough. The plastic barrier I’d wrapped it in came off at some point and rabbits chewed off the bark and girdled the tree. It is dead. That was the only tree I lost, so that’s good. I have some new trees arriving this week, two new apples to fill in empty spots in the orchard. That’s exciting.
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| Little apple tree killed by rabbits. |
The voles live under the snow all winter, making tunnels, digging down and feasting on things like the last carrots I didn’t pull up and bulbs like lilies and tulips. The extent of their destruction is hidden until the snow goes away. Their tunnel trails meander over the lawn and through the flowerbeds. They use the compost pile as their central habitation. Seeing the extent of their destruction, I will set mouse traps baited with peanut butter to begin a war of extermination this week.
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| Vole damage on the lawn. |
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| A vole (not my photo). |
The big event last week was our front porch. I don’t know when the original front porch was added to this house. It wasn’t part of the original house which was built in 1869. I think it was added sometime before 1910. I know it wasn’t original because down in the cellar there is a window that is blocked by the porch. That old porch was an odd shape, three sided, with shallow steps on all three sides. It was made of concrete poured over rocky rubble. It served the house for over a hundred years. When we moved here in 2000, the porch was already deteriorating. Over the years we worked at maintaining it. The concrete was crumbling. The roof was starting to rot. One year during a visit, my brother-in-law Bob poured new steps for us. Another year, I painted the rusting metal supports. But last year we realized the deterioration had gone too far and serious measures were needed. We decided to tear down the old porch and replace it with a new and bigger one. We drew up a plan. The project began last fall when we tore off the old rotten roof. Then our neighbor Ziggy brought over his jack hammer and Josiah spent several days taking down the concrete by a foot. In November the first phase of construction began when our contractor Ervin Gingerich put up a new roof. Then winter set in and everything stopped for a season. All winter long we didn’t use our front door because it opened onto a pile of rubble. The second phase of construction began two weeks ago when Ervin put on a deck, stairs, and railings. We also had a friend install an electrical outlet on one of the porch posts. On Friday, Ervin finished Phase Two. The structure of the porch is complete. We love it. This new porch is so much bigger than the old one. We feel so blessed to have it. Phase Three will come later on this summer after the wood has a chance to dry out. Then we will stain and paint the raw wood. We have plans for furniture, a swing, flower boxes, and warm summer evenings spent sitting on the new porch.
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| The new porch steps. |
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| The new porch. |
I couldn’t settle on a composer or performer for my musical excursion last week. I looked over this and that and nothing appealed to me. I listened to a few minutes or seconds of various things. Nothing. So I decided to choose something at random. My pick fell on Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. I hadn’t listened to it in a long time. Last week I listened to it four times. It is raucous and lusty and seemed fitting for the approach of spring. The first time I ever heard of the Carmina Burana was in 1983. I was working at a record company in Burbank as a “mother checker.” I sat in a soundproof room with an amazing stereo system and checked the sound quality on the metal “mother” discs used to press the vinyl records, making sure there were no pops or clicks on the discs before the pressing. That disc I was checking that day had various classical concert blockbusters on it and one of the tracks was a piece called O Fortuna from the Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. It was amazing and I was even more amazed that I’d never heard of it before. So I did some research and then headed over to Tower Records, a place I often haunted on my musical explorations, and bought a copy. I listened to it over and over again. It is an interesting work. The lyrics for the Carmina Burana (Latin for “Songs from Benediktbeuern”, Buria in Latin) come from a manuscript of 254 mostly irreverent and satirical poems from the 11th and 12th century written in Medieval Latin and Middle High German by a group of theology students called the Goliards. The poems were discovered in 1803 in a Benedictine monastery in Bavaria, and they created quite a stir among scholars. Twenty-four of the poems in the Carmina Burana were set to music in 1936 by the German composer, Carl Orff. The opening and closing movement, O Fortuna, immediately became very popular – for everyone but me apparently. I’m sure you’ve heard at least part of it. It’s been used in many movies and even TV commercials. Sometime in the early 80's I went to a performance of the Carmina Burana at the Hollywood Bowl. It was amazing to see it performed live. The singers were unbelievable. The most famous part, O Fortuna says:
O Fortuna O Fortune,
velut luna like the moon
statu variabilis, you are changeable,
semper crescis ever waxing,
aut decrescis; ever waning;
vita detestabilis hateful life
nunc obdurat first oppresses
et tunc curat and then soothes
ludo mentis aciem, on a whim;
egestatem, poverty
potestatem and power,
dissolvit ut glaciem. it melts them like ice.
One of my favorite parts is Olim lacus colueram (Once I swam in lakes), the words of a swan who has been roasted and will be eaten for dinner, sung by a tenor with an unbelievable vocal range. But my favorite part is in the section called Cour d'amours, the Court of Love, a beautiful soprano solo, In trutina, In the Balance.
In trutina mentis dubia In the wavering balance of my mind,
fluctuant contraria Set against each other,
lascivus amor et pudicitia. Wanton love and modesty.
Sed eligo quod video, But I choose what I see
collum iugo prebeo: And submit my neck to the yoke;
ad iugum tamen suave transeo. I yield to the sweet yoke.
Today friends of ours from Canandaigua, Jacob and Tiffany Yoder and four of their children, came down to speak in our branch. After church we invited them to come for lunch. The Shilligs joined us and we had a delicious Italian feast. Stacey made lasagna. Hannah prepared garlic bread. Julie made her famous Mosquito Salad (romaine lettuce, grated Parmesan cheese, roasted pine nuts and so much garlic, it keeps the mosquitos away). Miriam made dessert – brownies, chocolate angel food cake, and lemon-blueberry buttermilk gelato. It was nice to sit and eat and visit. A perfect way to spend a Sabbath afternoon.
The week ahead is full of promise with daytime temperatures nearing 60° all week. I have big plans for working outdoors cleaning up winter debris, making new flowerbeds, preparing for the season of green and growth that is just beginning. Next weekend we are going down to the Thayns for a springtime celebration. The Fosters will be there too. So much to look forward to.
