April days

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.

When the sun is out and the wind is still,

You're one month on in the middle of May.

But if you so much as dare to speak,

a cloud come over the sunlit arch,

And wind comes off a frozen peak,

And you're two months back in the middle of March."

- Robert Frost

I think I go into a winter hibernation also and when Spring arrives I am always amazed at what I can pack into a day.

Monday I drove Mom on errands. Tuesday, I had things to do. But on Wednesday we kicked butt. We moved her swing out of the garage. Mom started raking the garden and when I went down I pulled the old corn stalk stubs and pulled the old cabbage roots. The blackberry canes that I hadn't finished in the fall, I cut and the tops were trimmed back to 6 feet on the new canes. I had to move some asparagus plants from the large garden to the greenhouse garden as they were now in an annoying space. So I dug them up and dug a section in the greenhouse garden and planted them. Hopefully they will like being by the other asparagus I have planted there. I pulled up the black plastic that we used around the squash and raked that whole area.

There is still 1/4 of the garden to finish cleaning up, which will be done after driving Mom around today. Then we are going to transplant some rhubarb. Her's isn't up yet so I am hoping it won't affect it too much. I also have extra blackberry plants that need to be transplanted.

The weather has been amazing. Today we are expecting 72. I have a cardinal family that comes to the feeders everyday now and yesterday I saw my first gold finch of the season. The woodpecker can be heard in the woods and the barn swallows abound. The red tailed hawk flies over and the rooster warns his flock. Their music and antics make the time spent outside so enjoyable.

On the farm front, I started leaving the duck eggs in the nest on Sunday so hopefully she will go broody soon, it worked last year. The lambs are getting bigger and soon we will be getting the pigs, roaster chicks, and turkeys.

And fiber has not been forgotten. On Monday evening the Selbuvotter glove NHM#7 looked like this before I pulled it all out and I switched to a large needle. As of this morning it now looks like this. I love these gloves. I keep needing to see one more row, no one more! It is addictive. But, I have also managed in the past week to finish these-small projects with no thought involved. I still have to finish the poncho which has been sadly neglected. But right now I need to go put dinner in the crockpot and open the greenhouse, still have to decide where everything is going to be planted, start weeding the flower beds......