Around noon Mama and I went out J's office door and took a little walk. She sat at the top of the slope down to the water and observed my ongoing process of being there on the center of the bridge. She used to feel like she had to be with me - trying to understand. Think she concluded she preferred to keep my bridge-standing on her radar from a distance.
I take in the water's energy and let it nourish my own. Sometimes I get an impression that starts an internal dialogue I wasn't expecting or resolves something that felt too messy to untangle so I hadn't tried. Sometimes - like today - I simply stand and let my mind go blank. It was a little too chilly to stand there until every muscle let itself go to the sound-healing of water music but long enough to leave the bridge with a sincere smile.
Those soapy looking bubbles come every spring. It lasts for a while and then stops. I have a couple different theories about the bubbles but today I thought for the first time to address them. To ask where they come from - what makes them?
I will admit I did not wake up in a state of open-hearted YES-ness this a.m. But once I was out and about as part of the landscape I began to get some semblance of a groove back. Below I avoided cropping for composition's sake in order to show ALL of the frog eggs in the little pond. And yes I know it's dirty as well as what that 'means'. But I also know there has been virtually no time since the ice melted when the frogs haven't been going at it. J. feels it's inhumane to interrupt them when they've just re-animated, etc. They need to make a lot of eggs to get a few surviving frogs because there's a troupe of sparrows that dine on the pollywogs. Last year there was a young snapping turtle as well but this surprise addition seemingly disappeared at a certain point in very late summer.
Once it's clear the frogs' egg laying cycle is complete we'll start gently extracting leaves with the pitchfork from side angles. We get a bit more skillful and non-invasive each year.
The trees are waking up more and more. It's a subtle form of springtime vibrancy but very powerful because of its slow rise. The cat and I stood taking stock of the day's silent messages. Mama turned with abrupt certainty and led us back to the front of the house.
This volunteer foxglove is so ready to get things going!
PLUS ...
My basement seed starting operation is in use as of this morning! T. donated his college daze computer table as an adjacent work station. For me that's an improvement over schlepping the full flats twice a day across the room to the long work bench where I used to do it. T.'s commandeered that section of the basement at my invitation. I'd planned to use the top of the freezer but that was far from ideal and a different directional schlep. Was touched by the contribution. This is perfect for conserving core energy for me. Also nice to be working directly beside the plants' heat and light sources once they're growing and I need to water them beyond surface misting.
So far I've planted some of all the seeds pictured above plus dark opal basil. Used the green and dark opal seedling to help me know the difference between tomato plants from different packets. Did four of the Blush cherries and eight of the Gourmet slicing mixture. Also grow a six pack of the San Marzanos. I also have five more types of seeds to plant in part of another flat. Yesterday evening there was a momentary kink when I saw the new six packs I ordered are REALLY large. I must have clicked on the wrong button for the size choice. So I'll have to go with re-used six packs from last year's seedlings to get started. I'll transfer from there to the bigger six packs and then, hopefully, into the 'stocky transplant' pots I I also purchased.
Additionally I'm super happy with the quality of Gardener's Supply Warehouse brand seed starter. Time will tell how things sprout but I'll then also get to test the quality of the brand's potting soil. There's a place right up the road selling bags of rotted horse manure but you have to inquire within. J and I are past the point of being comfortable with that formerly normal and totally neighborly way of getting what you need around here. Probably 20 or 30 different people are involved "within" as the stable boards and breeds. So we'll be budgeting amendments from what's on hand until I find something that seems workable for us. Feel fortunate we over-bought straw mulch last year. Something told J. it was imperative for the spring. He's not the type to be that way but every once in awhile he gets feelings. This hunch will be invaluable for the welfare of the new beds.
*****
Insta-cart grocery shop fulfillment was stressful this time although that's no fault of anyone involved. There were just a gazillion substitutions one right after the other and sometimes it wasn't clear which of the alternatives had been selected for us. But when the order arrived and we got everything situated in the first stage of our decontamination process we saw everything made sense beyond an extra container of cocktail tomatoes but I already have a plan for that. J. was particularly happy about the meat selection substitutions. From what I saw from my vegan's 'social distance' it looks like the swap-outs will be more enjoyable for both the guys than what I originally chose yesterday.
(today I also hit Dick Blick online to stock up on gesso, YES paste, hinged linen tape, glue sticks, and a handful of drawing pencils but that's a story for the other blog. I'll share it when the package arrives and the stock-ups have been through our evolving de-contamination process. Gassed up and hopefully ready to go absolutely nowhere my car has become a sort of holding tank for surfaces that need more than 72 hours before bleach cloth wipe down, rinse and life-integration. Virgos do not play with things like a highly contagious rapidly mutating virus and J. has been gradually refining our system. Tonight we're going to re-organize everything on the garage shelf he built to hold the canned/non-perishable food cache. Make it more of a working pantry than a storage shelf.)