Then Things Got Better

Gardening has become something of a paradox for me. It makes me feel young and old at the same time. Planning, making, and keeping a garden feeds my body and mind. It invigorates me. I love being a part of the ever-turning cycle of birth, life, and death in the garden. Anticipating and then witnessing the revival of the earth in the spring after the cold sleep of winter always makes me feel young again. My faith and belief in resurrection is amplified with each new spring I experience. And yet, these days, the garden also reminds me more and more of my mortality. I feel more keenly the physical limits of advancing age. Where once upon a time a day of hard work in the garden left me a little tired and yet renewed, I find now I get tired sooner and renewal takes longer. I’m not as nimble or as strong as I once was. Even so, the soreness and fatigue that comes from working in the garden is far superior to any muscle ache I ever got from exercising just for the sake of exercising. Gardening is my greatest addiction. I crave it all year long. I can’t imagine life without it. I have no desire to ever stop doing it. I recently read an article about a Gardeners Anonymous group (there isn’t really one, the article was facetious). The author had a list of ten things and said if you can answer yes to seven of them, you might want to join the group. The list was:

1. You follow 10 or more gardening forums. –- I only follow three.

2. You keep a garden spread sheet. –- Yes, I do.
3. You prefer plants as gifts. –- Yes, along with books about plants and gardening.
4. You rescue plants at the store clearance rack. –- I’ve done this.
5. You hide plants. –- This hasn’t happened yet.
6. You grow more plants than you have room for. –- Yes.
7. You are accused of being a walking botanical book. –- No one has ever openly accused me of this, but maybe they are just being polite.
8. You take field trips to see plants. –- Definitely yes.
9. You have more seeds than you could ever plant in your lifetime. –- Yes.
10. You would rather be in the garden. –- It is my favorite place to be.

I guess if such a group actually existed, I’d qualify for membership, but even so, I’d never join. I’m fine, really.

Monday was a good day. It was mostly sunny. The temperature warmed to 52. I wasn’t in school. As soon as the dew dried, I was outside working. I pulled up four five gallon bucketfuls of weeds from the vegetable and flower beds, most of it chickweed, corn speedwell, and dandelions. I worked mostly on my hands and knees crawling from one bed to the next. At noon I had to stop for a while to eat some lunch and rest my aching knees. Then I was back at it until chore time at 3:30. I was tired and sore when I called it quits and it felt good.

Primroses in my garden.

I was in school on Tuesday, but when I got home, the weather was still good. I weeded the raspberry bed and I planted onions. I had one onion bed ready and I put in six rows – three of Spanish Yellow and three of Redwing onions. The second bed wasn’t ready yet, but when Stacey and Hannah got home, Miriam joined them and together we finished planting. We hauled buckets of mushroom soil to fill the bed and then put in eight rows of Redwing and Copra onions. I still have a small bundle of onion starts and a bag of onion sets to plant, but they will have to wait until I have time to prepare another bed. So now, out in the garden, I have most of my onions in, my garlic is up, my spinach has sprouted, and I planted some lettuce seeds.

Onions planted.

Tuesday evening, the forecast said things were about to take a turn for the worse weather-wise as winter was going to reassert itself yet again. The temperature began to fall and I went to bed expecting to awaken to a white world in the morning. But at dawn on Wednesday no snow had come. I thought for a moment we had escaped it. But I was wrong, of course. The snow started to fall around 9:00 and kept on falling off and on for two days. It would accumulate and then melt and then more would fall and melt again. The snow wasn’t bad for the garden, it knocks things down but doesn’t kill them, but the cold that came after was. The tender leaves of my kiwi vines got frozen off – again. It happens every year and they must start over again. My fruit trees weren’t budded out enough to get damaged – I hope. My lilies, which were up about four inches, can take temperatures a bit below freezing, but the temperature dropped into the low 20's. They are all damaged. We might have yet another year without lilies. That’s sad.

Tuesday evening.

Wednesday afternoon.

Isn't it supposed to be spring?

Thursday.

Down in the barn, after keeping them apart for several weeks, we introduced our peacock, Posey, to his intended, Petunia. We were worried that they wouldn’t get along, but they mostly seemed disinterested in each other. We have them sequestered together in the middle pen of the barn. We’re hoping they are just shy and will soon form an attachment. We plan to build a separate pen for them out on the edge of the orchard where we hope they will raise a family.

Posey and his intended, Petunia, together at last.

As I sat indoors and watched the snow fall on those sad days last week, I fed my sagging spirit with Bach. This time it was the Two and Three Part Inventions (BWV 772-801) on repeat all day. Once upon a time when I was diligently studying the piano, I was actually pretty good at playing the first and easiest Two Part Invention in C major. I cannot play it now. And I never could play any of the others. But I love them all. Bach composed them as contrapuntal exercise pieces for his son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. It is amazing to me that he created such perfect and beautiful pieces as keyboard exercises, but that’s Bach. This is the Three Part Invention No. 2, one of my favorites, played by Paul Barton, also one of my favorites.

The week took a brighter turn on Friday. Although there was snow on the ground that morning, warmer  weather moved in. Winter retreated again, for good this time, I hope. We left early that afternoon and drove to Toledo, Ohio, to be with the Fosters and the Thayns for the weekend. The reason for this gathering was ostensibly to celebrate Mabel’s fourth birthday with a party and a trip to the zoo. But there were deeper and secret plottings underlying that. Miriam, Hannah, Rachel, and Sarah arranged for the weekend to also be an early surprise birthday celebration for Stacey. She will be 60 on May 17th and there have been secrets afoot in anticipation of that. The girls arranged for Stacey’s sisters, Roxann and Audrey, and Audrey’s daughter Emma to be at the Foster’s house as a surprise.

When we got there, the surprise party had arrived just ahead of us. They were hiding in the garage. We unpacked our car and went into the house. The Thayns arrived shortly after us. Then there was a knock at the door. When we opened it, we found a large refrigerator-sized box on the sidewalk. Stacey saw that there were feet under the box. She lifted it and there was her sisters and her niece. She had no idea they would be there. She was flabbergasted! That was the beginning of a very happy weekend.

Surprise!

Audrey, Stacey, and Roxann.

We did all the things we always do when we get together – games, food, music. We went for a walk in a park and let the girls play on the playground there. We visited a fantastic nursery to look at all the plants (yes, we do things like that for fun). There were gifts to open for Mabel and Stacey. Miriam arranged for friends and family to send her short video clips for Stacey’s birthday. Geoffrey edited them and we watched them on Saturday evening. We had church together on Sunday morning. It was a great weekend. Roxann, Audrey, and Emma left on Sunday afternoon to fly home. The Thayns left later that evening. Stacey, Miriam, Hannah, and I stayed one more night and came home this afternoon. We had a wonderful time.

The birthday celebrants, Mabel and Stacey.

Making a little music.

Playing games.

On our walk in the park.

The Shillig sisters.

Hazel at the nursery.

A black licorice taste testing.

Watching Stacey's birthday tribute video.

A gift from Rachel, a 20 year photo album.

When we got home I did the chores right away. I collected 71 eggs. After that, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. The weather in the week ahead looks good – no snow or frost in the forecast. I have so many things to do. It looks like it will be good, busy week.