After quite some time without frost, we had two nights of it last week. The weather service gave us ample warning and we covered what we could. Everything came through unscathed. After that cold snap, the weather was beautiful for a few days. Then this morning it was actually snowing a little when I woke up. It didn’t stick, but just seeing the flakes fall made me mad. Now tonight we’re supposed to get a hard freeze – down into the 20's. This is the most frustrating time of year for me. My garden is growing, the orchard is blooming, and when the cold returns for another attack, I can’t do much to protect things.
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| Snow this morning. |
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| Snow in the orchard. |
We’ve eaten asparagus several times now. I don’t know if it’s because it’s the first thing we get to eat from garden every spring, but it is one of my favorite vegetables. Maybe it’s simply the fact that it is so delicious. I like it best when it’s steamed until tender then served with a little butter. I also love cream of asparagus soup. Maybe I’ll make some this week.
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| Asparagus. |
On Monday, I mowed the entire lawn using my new reel mower for the first time and now I realize several things I never considered before. When internal combustion engines and electric motors are taken out of the lawn care equation, my desire to have a large expanse of mowed lawn (a desire I started to lose years ago anyway) has vanished entirely. Now mowing the lawn equates to going on a five mile hike while pushing a slightly uncooperative machine in front of me. It takes me about three hours. I know now why the Amish don’t have huge lawns around their houses. It just isn’t practical. And it seems silly. And a waste of time and energy. Using my reel mower is great exercise for me, and I appreciate that, but I’m already thinking of more ways to shrink the size of the lawn. I’m thinking along the lines of a “wild flower meadow” except in a few areas like around the fire pit, and in the back yard around the gardens and flowerbeds, and just enough cut lawn for a croquet court. I’m pretty sure most of my neighbors (while roaring around on their riding mowers) think I’ve gone crazy. Or become a hippy. Or a democrat.
On Tuesday after school Josiah and I took a long walk to see what birds we could see. We’ve been hearing all kinds of new bird songs coming from the beaver pond and the woods and we wanted to identify the singers. We started out down at the pond where there were warblers, swallows, and a green heron. From there we walked up to the woods where we saw an ovenbird, a scarlet tanager, a wood thrush and other warblers we couldn’t positively identify. There were wild flowers in the woods too – dutchman’s breeches, white, yellow, and purple violets, red trilliums, and may apples. The trees are just leafing out and the ferns have begun to unfurl and the woods are lovely.
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| Yellow warbler at the pond. |
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| Green heron. |
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| Ovenbird singing. |
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| The scarlet tanager that followed us through the woods. |
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| Wood thrush. |
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| Dutchman's breeches. |
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| Red trillium |
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| White and purple wood violets. |
Wednesday evening was the Spring Band Concert. Josiah performed with the high school band and the jazz band. During the concert they honored the senior members of the band and gave out the band awards for the year. Josiah won the John Philip Sousa Award, which is quite an honor. It is given to one student who shows “superior musicianship, dependability, loyalty, and cooperation.” We are so pleased and proud of him. So, that’s the very last concert for us. Another threshold crossed.
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| Josiah at the band concert. |
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| The high school band. |
On Friday night, company arrived for the weekend. Our nephew Stephen Pister and his wife Erin and our niece Audrey Pister drove down from Fredonia, New York. We’ve had a great time chatting, eating, and just enjoying each other’s company. Last night we went to the movies in town. Stephen and Erin are leaving this afternoon after lunch to go home. Audrey will stay with us one more day and go back tomorrow. It’s nice having family nearby, well, two hours away, but that’s close for us.
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| The Pisters visiting the chickens (that's Audrey holding Sylvia). |
We came home from church just now and found a ridge of icy snow on the ground under the eaves of the house. Apparently there was some solid precipitation while we were gone. I wanted to say some bad words about the weather, but restrained myself having just come from church. The house was cold when we got home and we asked Josiah to build a fire in the wood stove. We haven’t needed to light the wood stove for a long time now. Josiah refused at first telling us he doesn’t believe in using the wood stove in May. But we begged and he relented and is headed out to the woodpile now. So it looks like winter has returned for one last (I hope) attack on us. We’re bracing for a hard freeze tonight. All I can do is pray for protection for my poor fruit trees. After tonight it looks like the danger of freezing will be over. We’ll see.
