Sunshine on my winter weary shoulders
Posted by: TammyIt was a long winter and Mother Nature wasn’t done with us! A freak “overachieving” storm dumped well past the predicted 9 to 12 inches of snow to rudely deliver about 23 inches of snow!
But, this is New England and if you don’t like the weather on minute, just wait a minute and it will change. Within 24 hours, our temperature shot up to 50 degrees F. and the March sun went to work on melting our unexpected snowfall. The sun also prompted my maples to go on quite the run and I busily boiled down over 40 gallons of sap to about one gallon of syrup.
Sunday was absolutely gorgeous with abundant sunshine. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as I continued to boil. I hung my first load of laundry outside in the spring sun!
My gardens are once again covered in snow but I didn’t want to miss out on building up my vitamin D stores, so I decided to start making my supply of paper cups for my seedlings. I also inventoried and organized my seed bin and made a shopping list of needed seeds. Oh and I HAD to plant something. I planted rosemary seeds in a small pot from the house. It felt wonderful to stick my fingers into the soil and drop in those little seeds.
Looking for any excuse to sit out in the sun and yet still feel productive, I caught up on my homesteading journal, too. During this time of year I take the time to note the weather in relation to my sap collection totals and my syrup totals. I ponder future plans for my garden and my goals for the coming year(s).
I will admit that the warm rays against my face made me easily lose focus on my writing. As I sat cross-legged on the deck, I wondered if you could see snow melting. Yep, instead of watching grass grow, I watched snow melt. In the intense March sun, you can see snow melt! I stared at one area on a clump of snow tentatively hanging on in a pot on the deck. When you stare at one area, you see little prisms appearing on the ice crystals and then all of a sudden, the prism jumps to another crystal as the first one melts away. The little prisms came and went. The miniature valleys and mountains created by the snow crystals came and went. The sun had also come and gone , the much cooler shadow of the house reaching my warm little haven on the deck and bringing me out of my meditation.
I will ignore the snow’s rude interruption of my spring and look forward to more warm musing from my sunny deck.