Spring Week 7: First Week Without A Frost

The Gard’ner Wi’ His Paidle (Spade)
1.
When rosy May comes in wi’ flowers
To deck her gay, green-spreading bowers,
Then busy, busy are his hours,
The gard’ner wi’ his paidle.
2.
The crystal waters gently fa’,
The merry birds are lovers a’,
The scented breezes round him blaw –
The gard’ner wi’ his paidle.
3.
When purple morning starts the hare
To steal upon her early fare,
Then thro’ the dew he maun (must) repair –
The gard’ner wi’ his paidle.
4.
When Day, expiring in the west,
The curtain draws o’ Nature’s rest.
He flies to her arms he lo’er (loves) best,
The gard’ner wi’ his paidle.

I love listening to languages and accents. And I love Robert Burns. Maybe because I’m part Scottish, or maybe because he was just so good at describing the rural landscape simply and eloquently. This song of his captures the beginning of spring perfectly. It’s as if he were here warming up for spring planting. More than weather, I can tell it is spring by the scent in the air, and the gentle turn of temperature, the change in the way the rain falls, and the brightness in the light, even if it is cloudy.

We are slowly making farm progress. The first round of onions are planted. The first round of lettuces and brassicas are going in the ground tomorrow. The tables in the greenhouse are filling rapidly and the push is already beginning to get them moving through and into the ground.

The landing pad to Charlotte's hive. I love watching the foragers come home with full pollen baskets, and the guards checking everybody out as the try to enter.

Charlotte’s colony has been very busy. They haven’t eaten much of the artificial food I’ve set out, but they have been furious foragers, filling up their first box with brood already in the typical rainbow shape, arched with a band of honey and pollen. Eleanor’s colony is moving along and she is getting down to business laying eggs. They have eaten a gallon of sugar syrup and an entire pollen patty in their first week, but they are very well organized and getting along well.

Cows eat grass, and that's where they belong. Sunshine and green pasture.

The peas have sprouted, and the first greens are growing rapidly when the air is warm. The rapini is beginning to bloom out so it won’t be around for much longer. The pea vines are nearly tall enough to harvest, and so is the green garlic.