We grew by two...

We brought home two lambs today. They had never been out of a barn before- but it didn't take them long to begin to leap and frolic about in the pasture. We named them after clouds, "Nimbus" and "Cirrus." I spent a long time this afternoon just sitting and watching them explore and eat and leap and play. Enchanting!

"I got a lot done..."

I used to joke that I wanted the words, "She got a lot done" on my gravestone.
The last few days we have gotten lots done! We had a big painting project, painting all the front porch windows, (250 plus individual panes!) Chris then scraped and cleaned them all, (and OH! they look so nice!) We rented a tiller and tilled the vegetable garden, and also enlarged one of the front flower beds. I brought some beautiful landscaping rocks from my friends house and made a nice new border for the garden, planted some new shrubs and mulched the whole thing in. It looks amazing!

I weeded and planted my herb garden, (3 kinds of sage, basil, dill, tarragon, lemon verbena, lavender, coriander, parsley and more!) and planted the vegetable garden, too. Tomatoes, peppers, carrots, broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, winter squash, lettuce, sunflowers and celery. I interviewed someone for an upcoming article, fed dinner to friends two nights and ... dyed Flirt PURPLE. She causes a sensation wherever she goes.

Yup, I got a lot done.

Embracing the season...

Yesterday I went for the first kayak trip of the season... friend Meg and I put in on Sennebec Pond and paddled most of the length of it. Fish broke the surface of the water in silvery splashes and an Osprey hunted overhead, sweeping down, down to the water, then swooping back up into the evening sky. The black flies were fierce but the beauty of the trip made the bites seem worthwhile.

Today I groomed my horse a bit and checked on the new meat chicks. At 4 weeks they are bizarrely enormous.

And tonight before I cooked our supper I took my camera to the garden to capture some images of it in new spring growth. The setting sun illuminates the flowers so prettily.

Lilac season...

I picked lilacs yesterday. They are everywhere, growing up in neatly tended gardens, in massive hedges and along the roadside. The foundations of houses long past are cloaked in overgrown bushes of lilacs, their singular perfume a floating memory of those who once lived there.

When I came downstairs this morning the air was heavy with the sweetness of lilacs, setting the tone for the day ahead.

Waxwings...

A swift movement in the boughs of the crab apple tree caught my eye while I was mowing. Cutting the engine I could hear them... "shrree, shree..." The waxwings were here, gobbling up the petals of the apple blossoms. No wonder they are so beautiful, with a diet of fragrance heavy flowers.

Everyone is an artist...

 

I recently went to someones house to look at lambs to buy. When I drove up what I first saw was a very old Maine farmhouse, completely overgrown with shrubbery. The place was in a state of disrepair. I got out of my truck and began looking for a door, as I walked around the side I saw gardens bursting with a wild mix of flowers and weeds. The dirt path led to an adorable wooden archway with a sweet gate, and this hanging basket of jewel-tone pansies. Beyond that the yard opened up and I saw pretty, healthy, well cared for animals...dogs, chickens, sheep, a horse, guinea hens and geese.

The ancient barn needed a roof and paint and more, but inside was clean and smelled of sweet hay. And everywhere were little spots of beauty... a patch of scarlet tulips blooming at the edge of the woods, a pot of bright spring flowers on an old picnic table, a grape arbor with bird feeders and a whole flock of birds (and one sly red squirrel) filling the air with song and movement. And it reminded me that we are all artists, creating beauty where we can in our lives.

Oh HONEY..!

When I went to the barn yesterday I found Marion working with her bee hive. The air was alive with buzzing. She said the supers were full of honey, and she added a new one for the bees to fill. It fascinates me to see her at work, with special tools to scrape and clean the hive and bandannas stuffed around the openings of her boots to keep the bees from crawling in. She works with apparent calm, the bees dancing on her gloves and been veil. I have to think the work makes the honey taste twice as sweet.