“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” ―
I’ve begun my most recent newsletters with a quote. This one by Margaret Atwood is so true. It’s not just dirt we smell like at the end of the day. It’s sweat, flowers, and the strong scent of tomato leaves.
After the long winter came a stubbornly arriving spring, and then last week felt like summertime. The cherry and peach trees began blooming delicate flowers. Spring peepers (tree frogs) began singing their mating choruses at night somewhere to the north, probably near the lake or a pond. That’s a nice sound to fall asleep to. Black flies are back with a vengeance, of course, as they are every year at this time, just when we need to start the garden. We’ve seen more ticks than usual. Our resident groundhog, Marmie, has been making more appearances. Also, we spotted a piebold deer in our meadow over the weekend.
Yesterday I mowed around the garden, and my husband and I did some landscape fabric and addition of dirt to the garden beds. I’ve also been busy buying some tomato and bean plants, along with some herbs. I found a jasmine plant, which I had been looking for forever! That and some new honeysuckle will make some great scents closer to the house.
This is one of my favorite times of the year, despite the heat, humidity, dirt, ticks, and black flies. We keep busy. We smell like dirt!
