Monday, March 23, 2009

Welcoming Spring

~MARCH~
In the snowing and the blowing,
In the cruel sleet,
Little flowers begin their growing
Far beneath our feet.

Softly taps the Spring, and cheerly,~
"Darlings, are you here?"
Till they answer, "We are nearly,
Nearly ready, dear."

"Where is Winter, with his snowing?
Tell us, Spring," they say.
Then she answers, "He is going,
Going on his way.

"Poor old Winter does not love you;
But his time is past
Soon my birds shall sing above you;~
Set you free at last."

Mary Mapes Dodge


Hello, I am brand new to blogging and feel as if I am brand new to computers. What a challenge it has been for me to begin learning how this works. I am starting out slow and hopefully over time I will know how to put it all together.

To begin my blog I will share our celebration of the first day of spring:

We had a wonderful "herbal tea party/dinner" where we discussed what happens on the day of the Vernal Equinox (Spring/Equal Night). The Vernal Equinox is the point at which the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator from south to north marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The Sun is above the equator and night and day are of approximately equal length.



For our activity I explained how we would use our "spring basket." As you can see in the picture above, our basket has twelve plastic eggs nesting on wheat grass. Within each of these eggs is a list of family work to be done (written on card stock and cut out in the shape of eggs and held together with a brad to keep them from becoming lost) each week in the garden, the yard, and the garage. The work can seem burdensome, so I divided it into twelve weeks which makes the work seem more doable, and helps us keep on track for proper planting times, pruning and so on.

We opened egg number one and it told us to...
1) Clean and organize the tool shed.
2) Prepare 3-4'x4' garden boxes by adding compost and vermiculite to the soil from last year and then planting lettuce, peas, beets and radishes.
3) Radically prune the rose bush in the front yard as the snow bent it over and broke the trellis which had been holding it upright.
4) Clean out mailbox as we have bugs setting up house in the back of it.

This work was done on Saturday and well...it was a great success! Not only did we accomplish the list (thanks to Tony and son, Morgyman and their strong muscles and stick-to-it-ivness) but Tony also pruned the fruit trees, berry bushes and our tree in the front yard. Tony and Morgyman even had time to go golfing afterward.

The best thing was that the first day of Spring was actually spring like, it was beautiful and so was the day following. As the afternoon wore on I could feel a storm brewing, I knew it was coming. I had previously looked at the weather report online, so no surprises there. It is amazing to know that we have the tiniest little seeds nestled under a thin layer of soil, now with snow lying atop of them, and yet I know they will grow. It is like the poem says,

"In the snowing and the blowing,
In the cruel sleet,
Little flowers begin their growing
(in this case vegetables)
Far beneath our feet".



Egg number two was opened on Sunday, March 22nd and read:
1) Clean and organize the garage, and did it need it! (Once again I can take no credit-I was doing housekeeping duties indoors-while Tony and Morgyman were working hard in the cooold garage).
Yeah! Egg number two accomplished.

I will let you know what egg number three reveals. We will be opening it up Sunday evening at our Family Council Meeting (planning for the upcoming week).

Until then have a great week:-)

1 comment:

  1. Great adds to your blog, love the pictures of the baskets.

    ReplyDelete