I May Never Learn

 Every year, about this time, I get an incredible itch to plant all of the gardens.  I check the 10 day forecast to make sure we are finished with frost - and when the coast is clear, I work and work and work...  weeding, planting, watering for days.  Which is exactly what the past week has been... all of the above.

And as happens every year, the 10 day forecast somehow changes over night - usually after everything is in the ground - and a prediction is made for the mid 30's.  This is the kiss of death, because, nighttime predictions are always higher than what we actually experience.   We seem to sit in a pocket into which cold likes to settle.  Wednesday is to be 36 degrees and that means we will surely have frost.  So, at the end of the afternoon, on Wednesday, I will be covering up every last seedling and flower with sheets, cardboard, newspaper, tarps... whatever I have on hand.  I wish you were all neighbors, because I would send out the cry "all hands on deck!"

Oh well...  fingers crossed.  And toes.

We had a lovely quiet farm weekend.  Saturday threatened rain, but didn't deliver more than a little spit.  Sunday was beautiful.   I took a few field trips to the local greenhouses.  I found these lovelies... dahlias that will have profusion zinnias planted around their feet.  (They are bigger than they look.  Two of them occupy my side-by-side galvanized wash tubs by the barn.)

My tree peony bloomed, a single flower - which I brought in the house to fully enjoy.

Hubbs and I are not the only ones on the farm who are so very busy during this spring.  The guineas have been quite active.

Hubbs noticed that they had been hanging out in a space between the garden fence and the garden shed.

A couple of days later, he realized why...

So, who keeps the eggs warm while the guineas are out being guineas?

Why that would be old, fat Gus.

Actually, we confiscated the eggs.  Our guineas have a habit of leaving large clutches of eggs around the farm and never hatching them out.  Two days later, we found another dozen eggs in the same spot.

Yesterday I noticed a few guinea heads popping up out of the weeds of our perennial flower-garden-turned-weed patch.  

Suspicious, I looked around in the weeds and found these.

If only we could get our guineas to lay their eggs in a reliable location!  We love to eat guinea eggs, but only if they are freshly laid!  They taste just like chicken eggs, but have an even brighter orange yolk.

I spent a little time on Sunday cleaning up one of the fairy gardens at the edge of the woods next to our picnic pavilion.  (I will be planting all of the stumps in this area as soon as this week's colder weather is over.)

The focal point of this area is an old tree trunk from a dead pine tree that we had to have cut down in our front pasture.  The tree service removed a portion of the trunk, hollowing out a trough for me to plant this fairy garden.

The Creeping Jenny that I planted in it a few years ago has covered the entire planting area.  Now, at the beginning of each summer, I just clean out the dead leaves and debris and remove a little of the Creeping Jenny so that it is not completely overgrown.

The bears' tea party...

The mushroom house with a miniature of our sweet Sadie (our first dog... a Bernese Mountain Dog)

And the gypsy wagon with it's unicorn.

On the ground, blooming next to the fairy garden were these beautiful Star of Bethlehem.

I find spring to be so very intoxicating.  Our days are long and extremely busy at this time of year.  But, every bit of work pays off - in beauty and eventually in nourishment.  This time nourishes not only our bodies, but also our souls!

PS:  I had a lovely Mothers Day and spent some time with my kids and grands…including a visit from Tyler who is now as tall as I am!