First let me get past this – Josiah wants me to let you know that today is Star Wars Day. It’s May the fourth, as in “May the force be with you.” He has us listening to the soundtrack from Episode Four right now. We are BIG fans of Star Wars. I can’t count (maybe can’t remember is a better way of saying it) how many times I’ve seen all the episodes – though not as many times as Josiah. So, happy Star Wars Day!
May has arrived at last. May, June, and July are my favorite months of the year. The days are longest in these months. Already first light comes at 5:00 and the first birds start singing even before that. I love to hear the first robin start singing in the dark. I am a morning person. I love to be up before the sun. I love to watch the sun rise and hear the dawn chorus of the birds as they greet the day. Science may say the birds sing at dawn for various reasons related to territory defense or breeding behavior, but when I listen to them it sounds like they sing from pure joy.
The world is full of birds now. The trees, the lawn, the sky is full of them as they feed, nest, and sing. The mourning doves and robins have already made nests and laid their first clutch of eggs. The tree swallows are busy inspecting the bird houses out in the orchard. I have rose-breasted grosbeaks coming to the feeders every day. I hope they nest nearby. The goldfinches have lost their winter drab and are bright yellow again (the males anyway). They are all so beautiful.
 |
| Female house finch and male rose-breasted grosbeak. |
 |
| The robin's nest in our spruce tree. |
 |
| Tree swallows inspecting the birdhouse. |
 |
| Goldfinch. |
These long days also mean that plant life is flourishing. Spring is late this year, but the forests are finally blushing as the maples bud out in shades of red and chartreuse. The juneberry trees will soon bloom along the forest edges. In my garden, the lilacs have their tiny embryo flower buds that will open later in the month (if the frost stays away). The red shoots of the peonies are up, but we won’t have blossoms by Memorial Day this year. They are so late we’ll be lucky if they flower by the 4th of July. Along the back of vegetable garden #2 the rhubarb is unfurling its crinkled leaves. I’m waiting anxiously for the stalks to grow long enough so I can pull and eat some. The first asparagus is just emerging now – the most anticipated event in the spring garden. Asparagus always seems miraculous to me. It almost erupts from the earth, from a nub in the soil to a six inch shoot in a day. And I know of no vegetable as delicious as tender asparagus.
 |
| Rhubarb. |
Out in the orchard the fruit trees are leafing out. The early bloomers – the pears, plums, and earliest apples, are showing tight flower buds now. Because the cold weather lingered so long and the trees are budding late, we could actually have a very good year for fruit. The chances for frost grow less and less (but never go away completely) the further into May we go. It would be nice to have a big harvest this year.
 |
| Vegetable beds in the orchard. |
My bees are hanging on. I was very worried about them, I still am, but they seem to be okay. I see them flying in and out of the hive all day. I’m tempted to open the hive to see how much honeycomb they’ve built, but I think it best that I don’t disturb them for a while.
There is always so much to do during the long days. After sitting around and shivering all winter, I love having a long list of reasons to be outdoors. I never run out of work. Between the garden, the orchard, and the barn, there’s always something that needs to be done.
Down in the barn there’s a lot going on. The turkey hens have ten eggs in their nest now. Soon they’ll have enough to start setting. Our chickens are giving us about twenty eggs a day. We don’t have to try to sell our eggs ourselves anymore. A farmer over in Newfield buys all we can give him. He runs an organic dairy and we trade him eggs for milk. I placed an order for chicks last week (just fifteen – seven araucana and eight light brahma pullets), to keep our egg production steady as my older hens slow down. The chicks will arrive in June when I hope it will be warm enough to put them in the barn right away without keeping them in the house at all.
I’m still waiting to do some of the big spring tasks. We still have to clean most of the woodshed. And we need to fix the gutters on the house. And we need to repair the back porch roof. Every time we finally have the time to tackle these jobs, the weather is bad. Yesterday I had plans to get it all done. Everyone was ready to help. But it was a chilly, blustery day and it rained off and on all day, so we stayed indoors. We had a thunderstorm in the evening – lots of thunder and lightning. The power flickered off and on for a while. The weather for the week ahead looks better. Maybe we can work on those big projects after school.
The weather is nice today. It is cooler after last night’s storm, but the sun is shining. Today is fast Sunday and we are home from church now and waiting for dinner. Stacey made lasagna yesterday and that is warming up. Hannah is making garlic bread to go with it. We are all hungry and the cooking food smells so good. It won’t be ready for a while more, so I think I’ll go out take a walk around the yard while I wait. It seems a shame to spend a fine May afternoon indoors.
 |
| Daffodils in the woodland garden. |
 |
| Hyacinths. |
