This calls for a celebration. I found the first trillium in bloom in the woods. The rest are just poking out of the forest floor, but this one is already in full bloom. This one is so far off the beaten path, that I may be the only human who ever sees it. Still, most flowers in this world are never seen by any human. They don’t bloom for us. They bloom for themselves. Be grateful for every flower you get to see.

It’s tulip time in the valley. On weekends the traffic jams of tourists eager to see the tulip fields choke the towns and stretch for miles through the tulip fields. Off the beaten path are tulip and daffodil fields where the tourists don’t go. You can stop and enjoy the flowers all by yourself. There are no parking lots with tourist busses, no one to tell you to move along, no chatter, just the sound of the occasional car and the wind stirring the tulip blossoms.

Don’t aske me where. If I tell you, they’ll no longer be off the beaten path.

The wonderful thing about having fruit trees is that you get to enjoy the apples, cherries, pears, and plums months before they are ripe. You first get to enjoy their fragrant flowers when they bloom, and then their fruit when it’s ripe. It’s odd when you think about it, that humans and bees, two creatures as different as possible, are both attracted to the same thing – flowers. Bees are after pollen, but do they find the flowers beautiful as well?

The sun is out this morning and many of the chickens are gathered in their favorite morning hangout, discussing the dreams they had during the night, and fluffing their feathers in the warm sunshine. Out on the pond, a pair of Canada geese are nibbling away at the duckweed. This is the first year we’ve seen Canada geese on the pond.

An art installation isn’t the intention when we trim a maple tree. But the jumble of branches and twigs does look like an art installation destined for a museum. I could see art critics pondering the meaning of all these branches and twigs, with some pontificating on the significance of that branch being on top of this branch.

One thing worth pondering is the beauty of lichen. Some consider lichen to be a miniature ecosystem. They are complex structures of fungi, algae and cyanobacteria, and even more participants. Since they are the first things to colonize exposed rock and growing trees, it’s estimated according to Johnson R. Haas and O. William Purvis in Lichen biogeochemistry that they cover 6% the Earth’s land surface.

The thimble berries are starting to put on their annual art show. It starts with delicate pink flowers, followed by blood red berries in early summer. It’s an art show worth following. In unfolds beautifully and in the end you get to eat the art show.