This is a piece of ground you’d usually step around and not give a second thought to…unless you wanted to grow things in it right away! A good part of the field is dried out enough to work, but there are low spots where the ground is still saturated with water, all dense, squishy mud and all-day puddles. The weeds don’t mind, this is home! Thistle pops up. Clumps of grass aren’t a problem, when you don’t let them take hold. Unless there’s a lot of rain, a few more days and it’ll be good…
Weather
Buds on the trees
The birds and the bees and the buds on the trees… Gazing around the grey outdoors on this drizzly day. I know little about the ways of trees, so I’m not sure whether the buds are early, or late, or just when they’re supposed to be. What I do know is…there they are!
Grass is greener
Yep, the grass is definitely getting greener! It’s the planetary order of things, formerly known as seasons… In the back of my mind, I have this cartoon thought-picture of massive gears slowly turning, an unstoppable, unyielding world machine. That’s what operates above the surface noise of our crazy day-to-day weather. It’s the Earth orbiting, the Sun’s angle changing to bring more or less light and heat, the totality of plants, insects, animals, fungi, bacteria, all of it intertwined, adjusting and adapting to the conditions as best as they can. One big moving picture that we’re part of but overall don’t in the least bit control. Some things are in our control, and others are not. Kind of soothing when you lean into it!
Rain snow storm
Yesterday’s special weather advisory about a bunch of rain turning into a bunch of snow left us with this 7 a.m. scene. Wet, mushy ground covered by heavy, wet snow. Neither rain nor snow were particularly intense, just…wet. It won’t last long.
Hauling water
The seedling room is in a fully modern building with all the modern conveniences like electricity, heating, ample insulation and screened windows well-positioned for a bug-free cross-breeze and lots of natural light. The only thing missing is a handy supply of running water. Drilling for a new well located nearby ended in failure after a couple days of exploration produced only an expensive dry hole. So, until the gutter-fed rain barrels are turned over in warmer weather—overnight freezing of collected rainwater could crack them—I bring over water for the seedlings in 18 liter jugs filled from another well in a building not too far away. Simple systems and the rituals of spring!
This winter in a couple hours
This is the difference that a few days, or even a couple of hours, can make with our everchanging weather. Not the greatest illustration, and in reverse order (the snow shows up better on the right side of the photo): on the right, 9:30 am, after overnight snow blanketed the bare ground; on the left, the 2 pm view and it’s practically gone. It looked pretty much the same around noon, it took only two or three hours to melt away. Weird and also the new normal. For better or for worse, I think we’ve kinda gotten used to it! I suppose hopping from one state to another is better than getting the real extremes—months long heatwaves, river-in-the-sky deluges of rain, forest fires so intense they create their own local weather, and the like—that are happening other places than here. Whenever the weather’s not wiping you out…be grateful! :)
All clear!
Absolutely snow-free for a while now, and the grass seems to have gotten a little greener. It’s not been all that warm, still, hard to imagine going back to anything really wintry at this point. And that’s today’s weather check-in….