Celebrating Spring

Last Sunday, late in the afternoon, Miriam, Hannah, and I took a walk up to the woods. It was a fine afternoon, warm and breezy. The woods were stirring to life. We found spring beauties (Claytonia virginica), trout lilies (Erythronium americanum), and yellow violets (Viola pubescens) in bloom on the forest floor. The wild leeks (Allium tricoccum) were up. The woods are a bit of a mess with the aftermath of last year’s logging strewn in heaps, but the fungi are busy digesting it all. As we approached home again, the weather began to change. We heard distant thunder and the clouds moved in. Within ten minutes we were in a thunderstorm, the second of the day.

Spring beauties.

Trout lilies.

Wild leeks.

Cinnabar polypore (Pycnoporus cinnabarinus)

On our way home from our walk, Shillig's house and our house there among the trees.

Monday I was in school, but as soon as I got home, I did the chores and went straight to the garden. It was a perfect afternoon with bright sunshine and a warm breeze. First, I walked the front yard and picked up all the branches that last week’s storms brought down. Then I planted lettuce, spinach, and beet seeds in my raised bed garden. Next, I unwrapped the burlap that was protecting the new fruit trees I planted last spring – three peaches and a cherry. They were budding out through the burlap. All of the fruit trees are budding out now. I hope they hold off blooming for at least another week.

A white hyacinth.

The rhubarb is growing fast.

Stacey arrived home from her trip out west that night. Miriam drove up to Buffalo to pick her up. It’s nice to have her home again. Any time she’s gone like that, there is a gaping hole in our home. Now things seem normal again, well, as normal as they ever are.

Tuesday after school we began constructing the high tunnel I got for my birthday back in February. Between me, Kurt, Stacey, and Hannah, we managed to get the ground cloth laid and part of the frame up. We didn’t have time to finish it that day.

Putting down ground cloth for the high tunnel.

The frame partly up.

I wasn’t in school on Wednesday and it was a rainy day. I could have spent the day doing some spring cleaning, but didn’t feel very ambitious. Instead, I did some family history research. I began doing family history when I was fourteen under my mother’s tutelage. I started by making a copy of all of her work, her pedigree charts and family group sheets, writing it all out by hand on my own blank forms. From there, we began, my mother and I, to continue research. It was not easy back then. There were no computers, no internet, to help us. We visited libraries. We sent away for microfilms and spent hours scrolling through dizzying pages of census records. We sent to court houses for copies of records. We spent a lot of time waiting for information to come in the mail. It quickly became a passion for me. I’ve been at it now for fifty-two years and I still love it. You’d think that after all those years I might have found out all there is to know about my family, but that is not the case. Computers and the internet have made finding and compiling new information so much easier. I am lucky that my wife shares the same passion. She also began in her teenage years to do research under her mother’s guidance. And we have passed on our passion to some of our children. Miriam is an amazing researcher. So I spent most of Wednesday on Ancestry.com looking through World War I and II draft registrations. Besides telling me when and where these men were born, these records provide information that I find especially interesting, a physical description of them – their height, weight, eye and hair color, complexion, and distinguishing marks. I feel that I know them a bit better when I can picture what they looked like. I also find it interesting that they were, for the most part, shorter and slimmer than we are now. I seldom find a man six feet tall and even rarer, one that weighed more than 170 pounds.

Grandad's WWI draft card.

My grandad Rathfon's WWII draft card.

That afternoon, the rain let up for a short while and Kurt and I finished putting up the frame to the high tunnel. It looks like a real thing now. On Saturday Kurt finished squaring it up, and fastened it to the ground. Then, on a somewhat windless day we will put the cover on it. The weather has been very windy lately, but I’m anxious to finish it and start using it.

The frame is done.

These fine spring days make me happy. The earth is fully awake now. There is new life everywhere I look – in the opening buds of the trees, in the green of the fields, in the flowers in the garden and the lawn and the roadsides. The dandelions have started to bloom. I love dandelions when they grow in places I don’t care about so much. They are welcome to flower in the lawn and the orchard and in between the paving stones down at the barn. But I don’t want them in my flowerbeds and that is where they seem to like growing most of all. Our little lily pond is full of frog and toad eggs and tadpoles. Miriam said she saw salamanders in there one day. Our first warblers arrived last week. Birds are starting to nest. The tree swallows are battling with the house sparrows for possession of our bird houses. The bluebirds, the ones I always hope will nest in them, made a brief inspection and moved on. The robins are eyeing suitable spots to make their nests.

Dandelions down at the barn.

The lower end of the long border.

Fritillaries, one of my favorite spring flowers.

I still have to worry about frost. With all my fruit trees budding, this is always a tense time for me. The trees can take frost up to a certain point and right now they are still safe if the frost isn’t too severe. These are the days when I pray hardest over my orchard. I heed the prophet Amulek’s admonition:

“Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.” (Alma 34:24-26)

Thursday after dinner, Stacey and I drove up to Wellsville to do our weekly errands. It was a lovely evening and I was amazed to see how quickly things are coming into flower. Along the edges of the forests the Juneberry trees are blooming. We saw many forsythias, magnolias, and ornamental cherries blooming in gardens along the way. I love to see trees in bloom.

The ornamental cherry in the Thayn's front yard.

We went down to the Thayn’s house for the weekend. We left Friday afternoon and got home an hour ago. The drive down and back was lovely. We saw so many trees in bloom as we went south – crab apple, magnolia, and then dogwood and redbud. The Thayns have a beautiful ornamental cherry tree in full bloom in their front yard. On Saturday we spent a large part of the day at soccer games. Hazel, June, and Mabel are all on teams this year, each of them on a different team that played at different fields at different times.

At one of the Saturday soccer games.

Mabel the goalie.

That evening we celebrated Passover. It doesn’t officially begin until sundown tomorrow, but we are not official celebrants. We love to recite the story of the deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery. And we love to reflect on the Savior’s seder at the Last Supper. And almost as important as those things, we love the food. We had our traditional menu of apricot chicken, potato latkes, asparagus, haroset, coconut macaroons, and matzah.

Miriam's macaroons.

At our seder.

Mabel's birthday cake.

Happy birthday Mabel!

Thistle's first birthday.

Today we went to church and afterward gathered for lunch and to celebrate Mabel’s seventh birthday. She wanted a cat and soccer themed birthday and the decorations and the cake were perfect. It’s hard to believe my grandchildren are growing up so fast. Thursday was Daniel and Raven’s daughter Thistle’s first birthday. We face-timed them to wish her a happy birthday. I have a grandchild soon to be a teenager already! So we are home again. We had a great weekend. It went by too quickly. The week ahead looks to be cool days and frosty nights. I have garden tasks that I cannot put off any longer, so I’ll be bundling up and working hard and hoping spring warms up a little soon.