a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • A Little Tenderness

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    Old Billy, the tenderest rooster of the bunch. He is the father, grandfather, great grandfather, great great grandfather, great great great grandfather, great great great great grandfather, and great great great great great grandfather of many of the chickens here.

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    For lunch today, tender napa cabbage shoots. It was time to thin out a row of cabbage. A handful of cabbage shoots makes a tender salad.

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    Tender raspberries are plump and ready for picking. A handful makes a perfect mid afternoon treat.

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    Baby apples are covered with tender down. Where does it go as the apples grow?

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    Nothing is more tender than a mother hen. These baby chicks hatched yesterday and today. This afternoon she gave them their first lesson on what to eat. Look at how tenderly she shows them where to peck.

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  • Potato Flowers in May

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    Barrow Alaska’s record early snowmelt has been in the news recently. Snow at NOAA’s Barrow Observatory started to melt on May 13, 10 days earlier than the previous record for Barrow. An equally astounding, much-earlier-than-usual phenomena are the early blooming potatoes at a man and his hoe. Potato flowers in May? Mid June maybe, but May? I’m surprised there aren’t reporters from Reuters, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, CNN, and more, camping out in the driveway to take pictures of potato flowers blooming so early! It’s as moving a sight as glaciers melting in Greenland.

  • The Benefits of Going to Seed

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    Last year I found this variety of arugula with small serrated leaves. I let some go to seed and this year I have it coming up in droves. With a little effort and luck, I’ll get an established bed of this wonderful arugula that will provide arugula for years to come.

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    A basket of eggs, greens, and herbs is the reward for a day working in the garden.

  • The Enthusiastic Garden Help

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    I can’t complain about the garden help’s enthusiasm. It seems to have no bounds. Happiness is infectious. If you’re trying to avoid catching it, keep happy dogs a long ways off. Their happiness is especially contagious.

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    “Anything else?” Takuma 拓真 and Ena 枝那 seem to ask. There is a long list of tasks for them to learn, things like: no digging up the potatoes, no chasing the chickens, bark and chase away the hawks, and on and on. After having them for nearly three weeks, I have no doubt they’ll master their work, and still keep us infected with happiness and laughter.

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  • Other Worlds

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    Bees live in a phantasmagoric world of shapes and colors and fragrances we can’t fathom. For brief moments, following them buzz around flowers, you can get glimpses of what their world is like. Imagine getting your dinner by sticking your tongue into yellow, orange, and violet tubes big enough to push your whole head inside. Eating off flat plates must seem dull to them.

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    Grape vines have their own special world. Born as white, fuzzy leaves, they unfold into vast sheets of green. What happens to all that baby fuzz? Is it there to keep them warm? So they don’t taste good? So they don’t burn in the blazing sunlight?

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    The baby chicks have their mother-centered world. To them, their mothers must be towering, gentle giants. What memories of their mothers do they keep when they grow up? As adults, when they tuck their heads under their feathers to sleep, do they have sweet dreams of sleeping under their mother’s feathers?

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    By the pond, the Japanese Snowbells (Styrax japonica) are blooming. Every spring I look forward to these trees blooming. On a warm sunny day, when they are in full bloom and you can smell their sweet scent, you can lie underneath them and daydream for hours.

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