The grass is so green these days sometimes I envy the cows for their fiber chomping stomachs.  The leaves are like suncatchers, little stars of new life filling up the forests canopy.  The wildflowers are becoming so plentiful I can’t keep up on trying to identify them all, and our days are spent outdoors from sun up until sometimes well after sundown.  And the garden, oh the garden is not ceasing to amaze me.  This inherited, cherished spot has a new surprise every walk I take.  Like my mama, I like to start my morning off with a cup of coffee and a walk through the dewy garden to see what I can see.

After letting the big chickens out, and gathering the baby chicks and putting them in their fenced in area, I like to feel the morning light on my face.  The boys like to join me.  The cats trail behind, and the dog… oh the dog.  Since we brought home these multi colored egg laying hens we have noticed a steady decline in the number of eggs we were getting.  I was so confused, thinking perhaps it was due to them laying in odd places, or that two are very much broody having to be heaved off the nesting boxes several times a day, or maybe a critter stealing was them?  And then the culprit showed her smart little face.  Cloud, the tiny wonder, has been carefully carrying the eggs to a safe hideaway where she would down at least 3 a day.  No wonder she has not been eating her supper.  But oh her shiny coat….

(Miles new job is walking her in the morning… while the hens to their thing… a job he very much enjoys)

The new vegetable garden is fully stocked.  I was over zealous I am sure, disregarding my earlier promises of starting this year off with hops and lavender only, considering how busy our new addition will make us later this summer.  I planted sweet peas, two types of lettuce, spinach, kuri squash, butternut squash, watermelon, zucchini, asparagus, carrots, kale, watermelon radishes, pole beans, onions, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, catnip, sorrel, some different herbs and a small cutting garden.  Whew.  It was a very, very, enjoyable process and we all love to study the earth for any signs of sprouting through the day.  The fence is in the works, and let me tell you, it is going to be a beauty.  This man of mine has been working so very hard.  If it’s not a broken washer, or a new part in a car, it’s the fence or the coop or a tree.  Since graduation, I believe his schedule has been stocked two-fold.  But, truth is he loves it.  We both do.  This is what we have been waiting for, for so very long.

On sunday Miles and I found a good-sized patch of the beautiful and patiently awaited ostrich fern, better known as the fiddlehead!  We indulged tonight with gusto.  All four of us.  It is quite exciting for a person of any age to eat something so asparagus-y delicious and all curled up adorable that they paid not a penny for and plucked off with their own little fingers.  Today we plan on going back for more, perhaps enough to stock the freezer a bit too.

There isn’t a lack of things to do these days.  I feel like if I don’t consciously think about it I will do nothing to prepare for this sweet little baby that is getting bigger and bigger as we speak.  There is knitting, and a dream of a quilt, and sorting clothes, trading in the car for a (gasp) mini van, and washing diapers… and well I have ten weeks to go!  There is still time.  Or at least I keep telling myself.

Everything is happening so fast these days.  I want to hold on to these bugless, crisp, sunshiny days, with a sweet baby tucked inside me, two amazing little boys full of life and energy, and a very hard working partner by my side.   I don’t want them to end.