every day is a good day
Delivering eggs, bread, and tofu gives me a chance to enjoy the daffodil fields in full bloom. Daffodil and tulip fields in full bloom make up for all the gloomy Skagit Valley weather.
What’s in a face? It is said that chickens primarily recognize each other by their faces. They are so unique it’s not surprising. I’m sure you’d never confuse Hazel’s, Goldie’s, and Niji-hime’s distinct faces.
Sometimes you can’t be any happier. With our long, cold spell, I had no expectations of seeing any cherry blossoms when I went to see how the cherry buds were faring. I was sure it would be April before they would bloom. But I looked up and there they were, open blossoms, dancing in the spring breeze, dazzling against a cobalt-blue sky.
In a perfect world, the first cherry blossoms would make us stop everything we are doing, call into work and say, “I’m on vacation for the next few weeks. The cherry trees are in bloom.” We’d spend all day lying under the trees and clap each new blossom that opened. Or you could close your eyes, take a nap, and count how many more blossoms opened while you slept bathed in the sweet fragrance of cherry blossoms. And after two weeks or three, when the blooms were over, we’d lie under the trees and let the falling snow of cherry blossom petals bury us in pure joy.
At long last, the plum blossoms are open. The cold February and early March put a damper on spring, but no more.
In the garden the bees are awake, digging out of their dens, and buzzing about. If they couldn’t find something to eat, they’d go elsewhere, which is why it’s a good thing to have a variety of early blooming flowers. Dandelions are hardly a weed. Their puffy yellow flowers satisfy the hunger of many a wild bee.
The amazing stinging nettles, Urtica dioica (worth reading about), are pushing up too. A bowl of stinging nettle tips stirred into beaten eggs make a great omelette. It takes but a few minutes of cooking to vanquish their sting. Stinging nettles are so nutritious the industrialists have banned them from supermarkets, not true really, but it does make you wonder why there aren’t heaps of stinging nettles in the grocery aisles.
These are what non-industrial eggs look like. The variety of hues and sizes is endless. I was wondering why the industrialists love to make everything look the same, and then I realized that if every carton of eggs you saw in a store was different, it would take forever for customers to decide which carton of eggs to put in their shopping cart. Drag a few little kids with you to the store, and little Annie would be clamoring for the carton with more blue eggs in it while little Ken would be demanding the carton with the darkest eggs. Parents would hate to take their kids into the egg section of a store. Sales of eggs would drop because shoppers couldn’t make up their minds as to which eggs to buy. Have all the eggs look the same and get on with it, convince shoppers that all eggs are the same, speed the masses along, that’s the plot of the industrialists.
Yesterday I was celebrating the final arrival of spring. Today it is summer. How did that happen? A brilliant Oreas Anglewing (Polygonia oreas) spread its wing on the birch in front of the house. The sweet daphne opened their blossoms, filling the air with their sweet perfume.
With warm, sunny, summery days like this, these tomato seedlings will have plump tomatoes early in the season.
A few days ago little patches of snow remained in the shadows. Today they are all gone. Late January daffodil buds which went dormant with February snows are in bloom now, as is the first plum blossom.
The rhubarb are popping out of the ground. If any spring leaves need to get out of the ground and stretch, it is the tightly crumpled rhubarb leaves. They are so tightly bound up, they look like they are in pain.
The ducks are having a good time checking out the bamboo leaves I placed on the paths between the rows in the gardens. The warm weather has the hens laying a lot of eggs, thirty-three today.
Wednesday is the vernal equinox. It should be a national holiday like it is in Japan. There are five national holidays in Japan having to do with nature, the vernal equinox, the autumnal equinox, Green Day (May 4 this year), Ocean Day (the 3rd Monday of July), and Mountain Day (August 11). One national holiday a month celebrating an aspect of nature would be nice.