Sing a song of May time, sing a song of Spring...

"Flowers are in their beauty, birds are on their wing.

May time, May time, God hath given us May time,

Thank him for his gift of love, sing a song of spring!"

Goes the song I learned in elementary school. And today did really feel like a gift of love. It was absolutely glorious! The sky was a indescribable blue, studded with white clouds, the backdrop to the rolling knolls awaking again after the winter. Darius, Tessa and I went to help out in the community garden today, clearing out the old raspberry canes and then picnicking together with other community members on the hay field. As I lay in the dry grass warmed by the sun, I felt a comfort that I recall from some time long ago, of being cradled by the earth, a warm and secure feeling, a connectedness to nature and the life energy itself.

It was a day to get spring things on the go. I checked on my garlic in the community garden (we have 3 beds) and was a little concerned that the emerging tips seemed lighter green then I remember from last year. I wonder whether it's the wood chip mulch I used, instead of the customary straw? I decided to remove the mulch on two of the beds and replaced it with decomposing straw. Hopefully I didn't do too much damage to the emerging tips. I left the third bed as a control.

I was invited to take home any of the raspberry canes that had strayed too far from the row, and so I returned to the community garden a little later and dug out seven canes and potted them (compost on the bottom).

Darius worked on stacking the downed and cut poplar that is still laying around from when we cleared the site. We are building these bins from pallets we managed to secure, and the hope is that we can keep the firewood from rotting if we can get it off the ground and under cover. Poplar is like a sponge; it takes on water very readily, but sheds it easily too, as long as you keep it away from the moisture.

Looking at all these downed logs make me wish I had time to research and actually put into place some mushroom plots (start mushrooms that we could eat, by inoculating the logs that are too far gone). So much to do, so little time in a day.