Sensational

Yesterday was a day for the senses. It started out routinely with early grocery shopping and a walk in morning air that was still cool but warming quickly. By the time I was laughing out loud with Click and Clack it was warm enough for shorts and a t shirt. As I worked, new spring smells reminded me it was time to take more pictures....Loropetalum chinense is deliciously sweet, while the fragrant Viburnums can be spicy and aromatic.

I had some plant unpacking to do from our last sale, and I was even a little sweaty by the time I had finished hauling plants here and there to put them back in their places.Abies pindrow      I could feel the tingle of spring sun on newly exposed winter white legs and arms. This is what I had been daydreaming about all the long cold winter. Feels so good.



After some followup transplanting and rearranging,Pinus strobus 'Biltmore Blue'        I was getting tired, and tired of being hot (be careful what you wish for), so I stopped to check out my new vegetable raised beds. Since the weather turned warm weeks ago, the early spring veggies have been going to town. I had some purple seed potatoes to put in, so I dug around into that rich composted soil to set them alongside the red skinned and Yukon Golds.  I don't know about sustainable, organic, or green......but I do know that there are small daily pleasures in watching plants grow. I do this every day in the nursery, and often write about it. But the incremental gratification of producing your own food crops is a little different, and very special. I recommend that everyone go out and buy a packet of lettuce to sow, or some tomato plants after April 15th to put in pots. Get your kids involved, or the grand kids. They will remember the cool soil in their hands; the hot sun on their necks; the warm smile on your face; and finally the taste of independence, proficiency, and pride in that little green harvest.

In addition to that, March 19, 2011 was the day of the Moon perigee....the point in the moon's elliptical orbit when the moon comes closest to the earth. Since I was fixing up the retail area for our new season next week, I thought it might be fun to christen the new firepit while watching the full moon rise. We invited some friends over to picnic, talk plants and enjoy the moonlight. The air remained warm after the sunset, but the warmth of the fire was welcomed anyway. The big-headed cream colored moon rose over a cloud bank to the east, while to the north large thunderhead clouds flashed white and gold. Wow! What a show!! And certainly one we would have missed while inside just waiting for the moon to come in to window view.


All that would have been a full day. We were pleased with the new firepit, the visit with our friends, the moon and cloud show. I was tired by then, and headed to bed, with a final glimpse of that moon shining through the window as I closed my eyes. But around midnight I woke up to the most remarkable noise. One lone Mockingbird was singing for all the world outside the window. I thought it must have been the confusing light from the big full moon, but looked around this morning to find this information from www.birdwatching.com:

"The Northern Mockingbird is a world-famous singer...... The male mockingbird sings a medley of songs belonging to other birds, repeating each phrase several times before moving on to the next. Unlike most songbirds, which learn their songs before they're a year old, a mockingbird continues to expand his repertoire all his life. Some include the sounds of people whistling, frogs croaking, and doorbells ringing.

Although all adult male mockingbirds sing during the day, only a bachelor sings at night. He stops doing that as soon as he wins a mate. (This)..... was a love song."

Tired and sore from a full day of work I am just easing into, and still stinging from sunpinked cheeks, I lean back into the song of this winged Don Juan. He shares all his pickup lines, and all the snippets of lines he's picked up from other birds. He keeps at it over and over,phrase after phrase,  hour after hour, till near dawn. Then he is gone, maybe a bachelor no more. 

e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)