Life at The Farm moves at a different pace. There’s no TV. The batteries in the clocks on the wall are long dead. You know it’s time to get up when the sun hits the top of the far ridge. And it’s time to go in when it sinks below that same ridge and the temperature drops precipitously. It wasn’t quite as warm yesterday as it was the day before, but it was still quite pleasant sipping my hot morning beverage on the front porch. The birds were ecstatic…billing and cooing and doing their sweet mating dances in the hedgerow along the creek. The sound of water from the last rains gurgled over the native sandstone and shale. It was divine…simply divine!
I had planned to do the taxes yesterday. I downloaded my copy of TurboTax. I updated Quicken and created my yearend expense report, only to find my past tax returns are on the old laptop…which is at home. Not to be deterred, I set that aside and finished knitting a pair of socks in the afternoon sun. When I was finished, I took my camera and walked around looking for glimpses of spring around the farm.
The first place I looked was obvious. The Daffodils blooming out back…their little faces turned eagerly toward the ever warming sun. All I could think of was my grandma’s happy smile as she cupped each little blossom in her work-worn hands. Each of her posies was a gift from God after the long dreary days of winter. And they were gifts to me, as well. I wandered up the creek toward the barn, the thick mat of ground cover spongy beneath my feet. It never really gets dry up the holler.
The old smokehouse is leaning even further this spring. The dampness up there is rotting it away from the ground up. I peeked inside and found a couple of treasures to take along with me…an old alarm clock…a small wooden box…an interesting light that was probably used in a chicken coop at some point but rusted and surely unusable now. The kinds of things you might tuck away on a shelf or in a flower bed.
Something caught my eye amongst the leaves alongside the old pigsty. It was such a bright scarlet red, I felt sure it must be something man made…a piece of plastic, or tape perhaps. I brushed the leaves aside and was pleased to find it was a living thing! It’s called Scarlet Elfcup and it’s a kind of fungus. I’ve never seen it before to my recollection and I was happy to get a picture of it for you to see.
I came back down the driveway and checked along the bank, but there aren’t any wildflowers coming up that I could find. The Daffodils and Naked Ladies have about 6-8” tall leaves shooting up, but no buds yet. I swung around the end of the yard and up the creek bank to the enormous Flowering Quince. Their leaves are shooting out and the pink of future blooms could be seen popping out. I was so disappointed that I couldn’t find any of the Carolina Spicebush that used to grow there. I’m hoping it’s just not out yet. A few years ago, my uncle hired a couple of guys to clean out the creek banks and they all but decimated that bush.
It’s been a wonderful visit here. I went for a walk last evening and talked with the neighbors across the road. Then my cousin’s wife stopped by for a visit. Later, my niece that lives in NYC called and we talked for an hour. She has such an interesting job and I learned a lot from her. It has been way too long since we talked so we left the conversation with promises to touch base more often.
I’ll start another pair of socks today and work on our travel plans for the summer. I’m nearly finished reading this book. There’s always something else to do, isn’t there?
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”For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.“
Isaiah 61:11 NIV