Spring is Sprouting!

Two-week-old Marilla (a Plymouth Barred Rock) plays among the rosebuds and calendula flowers



As Teri and I had our first "picnic" of the year yesterday--eating sandwiches while sitting in the sunny warmth of our little bare-limbed orchard, we chuckled as the seeming suddenness of kooky wild spring: The cats are acting kooky; the neighborhood children were out in force, loudly whooping and screaming; the sound of lawnmowers was popping up in every direction and our own chickens seemed to have turned into ravenous, laying-focused hens over night.  As I told Teri, "the natural world has done lost its mind!"

We watched yesterday as all three of our hens tromped in and out of the coop, clucked and squawked around the yard, climbed in and out of the nest boxes, and just generally let the world know that they had things to do. Meanwhile, the baby chicks seem to grow an inch or more every day!  The past couple days they have taken to playing a chick version of leap frog--flying at each other clumsily--trying out their fast-growing new wings. Everyone is starving and we are forever scooping food and filling water bowls.  The cats are chasing squirrels, the squirrels are chasing each other, and the jays are stealing straw from the chicken coop to seemingly build a straw house.  Things have gotten busy!

Despite the frosty nights, the garden is starting to sprout as well.  The early peas are up--even if they have only just stretched their sturdy pea stems above the wet ground. The daffodils are blooming among the fat, prickly artichoke leaves, and the chives are stretching their tender, fresh green shoots up among the decaying leaves in the herb bed. I was delighted to find the hop vines sending out new buds and the raspberries getting promising green buds along the short, leftover canes. The currant bush has bright pink, drooping blossoms and the cherry tree is thinking hard about coming to life too!

This time of year is always a bit volatile--the weather can do anything; the garden could be anything; and while there is such a relief that winter is over, there is also a sense of panic.  When the natural world wakes up, we start feeling like we are already running behind!