spring forward!

That was some loud hail we had at night! Some said it was like hearing bricks hit the roof. I wouldn't go that far, but it was intense! Still, we were lucky: no tornadoes, no damage. And now, looking ahead, we have before us a beautiful ten days of perfect April weather.

This means that today I start my seasonal work in the flower fields.

After animal care of course.

As I survey all that needs to be done, I have to scratch my head a bit and ask myself this: can I really maintain ten flower fields, plus the two wildflower meadows, even as I am about to cross over into my seventies? I ask Ed over breakfast -- given that you are so incredibly busy with the machine design, who'll be my right hand assistant?

He tells me he'll be there to help and indeed, all morning long he runs between farmhouse with his zoom calls and the courtyard, trying to give me some help with the dumping of the flower tubs (they've rotted through: we need to replace them) and with the cutting down of emergent saplings in places where they don't belong.

Me, I work outside all morning long, feeling grateful for all that I managed to do in the fall. I know I like to take it easy come the end of the growing season, but right now I have so little time and so much work before me, that I am just happy I did not totally give up the ship back in October.

And so this morning, after I bake muffins for Snowdrop (because she told me yesterday that this is a very important day -- her eight and a quarter birthday!), I begin my spring work.

I trim all the hydrangeas. (There are many.)

I dig up invading Creeping Charlie. (This is a never ending task that will stay with me all summer long.)

I clear the spot for pea planting (easy peasy!).

I trim all the lavender bushes. (There are over 50 lavender bushes on farmette lands. The lavender field that seemed so hopelessly limp last spring seems to have experienced a rebirth and may well give us a lovely field of flowers behind the barn. Not that anyone ever goes there, except for us, but still...)

And all the while, I feel the wind in my face, and I marvel at how perfect the temperature is for outdoor work, and the sun does poke out eventually and that feeling of hope is so pronounced that honestly, I would do a dance outside if I weren't so busy doing yard work.

And now it's time to pick up Snowdrop.

Shockingly, she is wearing a dress. Of her own volition. If you knew how fiercely committed she was this year to leggings and a hoodie, you too would be impressed with the transformation.

We read, but, too, she plays. One thing I love to see is how much she goes back to old toys here and gives them new life, new stories, new identities.

And in the evening, it's me and Ed again, on the couch, utterly wiped out by the first day of big time outdoor work. But wiped out in a good way! Spring is awesome!