by Chappell on our previous farm

we're still playing catch-up here on the farm. i often feel like a dog chasing my tail in circles. potting seedlings up, putting seeds in trays. the rest of life is moving straight ahead to full-on spring: flowers popping up their heads, trees and bushes setting bud. birds taking up their stations as they always do. the red shouldered blackbirds are back in the field and around the pond, busy making nests. i know because they take up guard along the fence line to the greenhouse. they work in pairs. always one bird on a fence post two posts ahead of me. calling out and flapping around, trying to distract me from their new homes which will soon be full of eggs. my favorites, the blue birds, are all over the place. try as i might, i can not capture them on film. they are illusive and camera shy. as i work the beds for planting, i watch them flit back and forth from field, to bush to tree, as if apartment hunting, twittering all day long. they pass by within an arm's length sometimes, but if i pull out a camera, they're as good as gone.

the lettuce bed is planted, early enough this year for us to see if they can survive a freeze (and perhaps a light snow) with a bit of cover hoisted over them. it seems the last freeze always comes after the blooms have set on the fruit trees... we'll see if this year's any different.