Spring, Ephemeral
It seems in the blink of an eye we’ve launched from mittens and hats to swimming in the pond in a Julyish humid heat. Winter lingered in his overcast, moody skies, and sub-50 temperatures for so long we glanced anxiously at the grass, said a little prayer and busted into another hay bale for the cows. Until one day it got hot and the grass grew. All at once. And the hummingbirds arrived. And the cows were let out, and the pigs went out to graze and everyone rejoiced. And spring started all at once.
I hiked up to the ridge to find Lulu, our Jersey cow, for milking the other morning. It was hot already at 7:30 and the cows were looking for shade. With no leaves on the trees yet there was nowhere in their usual paddocks for shade. Unaccustomed to the heat, they trekked up to the ridge to crowd along the fence line of legacy oaks bordering our neighbor’s woods. And there I found my golden cow, in a sea of Spring Beauty flowers. Spring ephemerals. So named because they can only bloom in the woods before the trees leaf-out, before shade. Usually a short window of bloom as we come out of winter, before the wall of green takes over. And yet here little Spring Beauty was awash in the pasture in the glory of the grazing season. I milked my cow up there, baby strapped to my chest, gazing down the Kickapoo Valley in a sea of tiny pink and white flowers and it was glorious. You’ll have to imagine the scene as I neglected to bring any technology with me. Just me and the birds, and the cows and the hot, hot breeze.
Now it’s on to typical spring things: preparing mobile chicken coops for their tiny, feathered occupants, repairing fences ahead of the cows as they move on their rotations around the farm, foraging chickweed and lamb’s quarters for our dinner salads, getting all of those transplants in the garden already. Off we go, to get it all done while the sun shines and the grass is green!
The pigs experiencing their first tastes of fresh grass
Morning breakfast gatherings of shiitake mushrooms and nettles
Spring Beauty, she is oh so sweet
On our morning hike to fetch the cow for milking
Basket weaving