The Redbud! Yes!!

The redbud, crab apple, forsythia, and peach are all adding colorful beauty to this lovely spring awakening with the pear and other trees’ white blossoms giving a softening contrast. The fields in government program were burned as required by Gerald with some help from our son-in-law Brian. Now their blackened ugliness is almost replaced with bright new grass. Fields of pink/purple henbit and other fields of bright yellow wild mustard please my eyes. I don’t know enough about farming to know whether henbit and mustard enrich or deplete the soil for future crops, but I enjoy seeing those colorful fields. (I guess they deplete, but when plowed under perhaps everything comes out even. I need to ask Gerald.) I saw my first dogwood in bloom yesterday and once more rejoiced in spring’s glory. And the tulips are up! At this time of year, spring is my favorite season although autumn will be my favorite six months from now.

Jeannie has come and gone. It was a quick visit for only part of two days, but she got to meet Ian, the white fluffy goose, as did the grandkids during Easter weekend. Ian’s owner said he knew his name, but he did not respond when the grandkids called him. Gerald and I like trying to spot him over on the island or swimming beside it or, best of all, swimming along in a line with his wild geese buddies who fly in and out.

Rosy Cole, a writer friend over in England, wondered of Ian could mate with the wild geese. I have no idea, but it is interesting to speculate what might come out of hatched eggs if such a thing happened. When we first moved here, we had a white female wild goose on the lake who was sterile. Gerald and the grandkids named her Aflack, and the kids loved for me to fix them one of Aflack’s eggs. For some reason, the other geese shunned her, and I felt sad when I saw her all alone. Then she started helping out by sitting on other geese’s nests while they took a break, and suddenly she seemed to be accepted. But fall came and she flew away with the others, and we never saw her again. Since Sebastopol geese cannot fly, maybe Ian will be here for a long time.

Gerald works hard in the garden almost every day, and we are excited about the possibility of strawberries and asparagus. He built a short fence for the blackberries bushes to climb up. I always wanted a strawberry patch back when Gerald was too engaged with crops and pigs to add on other projects. Now I am fearful I may be too old to be able to get down to pick them—which used to be one of my favorite things to do.

We stay busy watching our two softball teams—sometimes A&M on one computer and Oregon on the other at the same time. More often, however, the time difference keeps them playing at separate times. I am almost through my cardiac rehab sessions, but then I have some major dental problems to spend time on. Always something it seems to take my time and give me an excuse for my messy office.