There is so much to take in out there, in the fields and forests right now! So much to admire and find delightful! Not fair to pack it into a month or two! Not fair to create such intensity and then to move on to quieter times!
And it is intense now, in May. This morning again the clouds compete with the sun and though the clouds took hold for the bulk of the day, the morning was dazzling in the back and forth.
The chickens begin my day here, on Ocean. If you're used to seeing Ed at the breakfast table at the start of each post, I'm sure you've noticed that he has to take second billing now.
(I'm sure he'd like it fine if I just stayed with the chickens, but to me, a good day always has that kickstart from a morning meal together.)
After, I go shopping with my older girl. I know many moms enjoy shopping with daughters, but I am not much of a shopper so that we can never really play out this ritual. But, home ownership has turned my girl into a gardener and I promised that the first trip for perennials we'll do together. And I do love shopping for perennials.
And as if this wasn't enough, after finishing a run through the greenhouse with her, I convince Ed that he and I must do our annual pilgrimage to the place that eschews all annuals and panders to perennial addicts like me -- the Flower Factory.
Where will you put the new flowers -- Ed always asks. And each year the answer is the same: time to expand the flower beds! Now, were I to start with a grand design, I probably would have planted everything differently. There would be order. Flowers would create a canvas of cohesion.
But it did not begin that way. It started small and grew incrementally and the only thing I will say in my defense is that I like garden chaos. Managed chaos, to be sure, but chaos, in the way that Monet's beds look only slightly orderly and cottage gardens look even less so.
I pick up the usuals: a few irises (bearded and Japanese), a few peonies (doubles and singles), a few daylilies (well, more than a few -- they are a staple of many of my beds), a few lavenders (for the chickens!), and Coreopsis and Gauras -- the cascading twinkling pink stars that stay with us all summer long (even though, unfortunately, they were a casualty of this last winter).
I place the pots on the picnic table. The chickens rest below. It is indeed a moment of pure bliss.
Later, Ed creates a trellis and we plant a Clematis vine against the sheep shed...
... and then we do spot work on a number of ongoing projects. The chickens follow us, always hoping that whatever project we undertake involves digging and therefore worms and sometimes it does and other times it does not...
... and the day passed in this way, pleasantly, oh so very pleasantly, even though far far too quickly to fully take in all that's taking place around us. I'll leave you with just one more nubbin of beauty. Believe me, there is so much more! Just look around you! So much more!
And it is intense now, in May. This morning again the clouds compete with the sun and though the clouds took hold for the bulk of the day, the morning was dazzling in the back and forth.
The chickens begin my day here, on Ocean. If you're used to seeing Ed at the breakfast table at the start of each post, I'm sure you've noticed that he has to take second billing now.
(I'm sure he'd like it fine if I just stayed with the chickens, but to me, a good day always has that kickstart from a morning meal together.)
After, I go shopping with my older girl. I know many moms enjoy shopping with daughters, but I am not much of a shopper so that we can never really play out this ritual. But, home ownership has turned my girl into a gardener and I promised that the first trip for perennials we'll do together. And I do love shopping for perennials.
And as if this wasn't enough, after finishing a run through the greenhouse with her, I convince Ed that he and I must do our annual pilgrimage to the place that eschews all annuals and panders to perennial addicts like me -- the Flower Factory.
Where will you put the new flowers -- Ed always asks. And each year the answer is the same: time to expand the flower beds! Now, were I to start with a grand design, I probably would have planted everything differently. There would be order. Flowers would create a canvas of cohesion.
But it did not begin that way. It started small and grew incrementally and the only thing I will say in my defense is that I like garden chaos. Managed chaos, to be sure, but chaos, in the way that Monet's beds look only slightly orderly and cottage gardens look even less so.
I pick up the usuals: a few irises (bearded and Japanese), a few peonies (doubles and singles), a few daylilies (well, more than a few -- they are a staple of many of my beds), a few lavenders (for the chickens!), and Coreopsis and Gauras -- the cascading twinkling pink stars that stay with us all summer long (even though, unfortunately, they were a casualty of this last winter).
I place the pots on the picnic table. The chickens rest below. It is indeed a moment of pure bliss.
Later, Ed creates a trellis and we plant a Clematis vine against the sheep shed...
... and then we do spot work on a number of ongoing projects. The chickens follow us, always hoping that whatever project we undertake involves digging and therefore worms and sometimes it does and other times it does not...
... and the day passed in this way, pleasantly, oh so very pleasantly, even though far far too quickly to fully take in all that's taking place around us. I'll leave you with just one more nubbin of beauty. Believe me, there is so much more! Just look around you! So much more!
