Spring peepers began last week...Wednesday I think. In the evening. It is always just a more sure sign of Spring. Most years there seems to hardly be a heartbeat between the cold nights & spring thaw & the first peeps. Thursday was gorgeous & we found ourselves inherently near the pond where they trill as that is rather close to the greenhouse. This is always a spring delight -- working in the soil, with the seeds, the sun (when we are lucky some springs) coming through the greenhouse & the peepers are the icing on the spring nature thrill cake.

They silence themselves again when it cools - as it did Friday & Saturday. But we expect to hear them again today or tomorrow. Later on we don't hear them but it's somehow another little treat to see a random peeper (Pseudacris crucifer -- small chorus frog) hopping about in the field, the flower beds or making it's way into our harvest shelter. Sometimes they find their way to lettuces in which case we are glad not to accidentally cut them upon harvesting.

So often things around the farm -- Mother Nature's offerings -- have a duality of good & bad. Like most things on this Earth, including humanity. Spring peepers are one of those things that I have seen no bad half of the probable duality. They eat flies & such which is a good thing. If we found out they ate mosquito larvae that would up their good factor tremendously. Ladybugs are another of Mother Nature's gifts that I haven't seen a downside too...not counting the Asian Lady Beetle, which aren't really the same & do indeed bite. Dragonflies and blue bottles probably fall into this category too, as do fireflies...which are called twinklebugs around here, thanks to the younger set.

Which reminds me of the peepers. Apparently on Martha's vineyard, peepers are oft called "pinkletinks"; and in New Brunswick, they are called "tinkletoes." So I guess in a livelihood that allows us to share work space with twinklebugs & tinkletoes, that's doing pretty good.

We do this activity every year during the 12 Days of Christmas. For each day of the 12 days of Christmas, which some do not realize are the days between Christmas & Epiphany/Three King's Day...anyway, during those days we track the weather. Not hard core, but take note of the AM & PM precipitation & temperature & anything unusual. Each day corresponds to the subsequent month in the calendar...first day of Christmas is January of the coming year & so on. It is not exact but holds quite true for the tone of the year's weather...generally cooler, warmer, drier, wetter, etc.

And so far this is what it showed to be on Mother Nature's slate. We consider it more of an interesting & fun activity than an intuitive glimpse or anything close to that, but we were wondering a while ago if we should think about a heavier year for greens & brassicas & not hold out hope for a great tomato year. Time will tell, as with all things, & all things farmy.

We've had snow at least once a little later in March than this - maybe the 20th in the last 15 years. I do remember that we had lots of plants in the ground already & got a very wet late snow. These are the things that make it such an interesting dance.

Today is a day to become fully in the greenhouse. To LOVE the greenhouse again. Not hard because that is one of my favorite parts of what we do. It has its distinct place in the cycle of the season. The greenhouse in late June for fall planted cabbage is not the joy that the greenhouse in early March is. Everything has a time and place in the cycle of the year and in the whole picture of the farm. This year it seems like a bit of a mental push to get there consistently right now. Because of all the snow. And cold and grey and cold temps. Running water down there is hoses seemed less possible last week.

But yesterday & this morning, despite the grey & the cool still & yet again, there were red-winged blackbirds. That's it. They know. It's time.

Like good food grown well, new developments can take time. Just like we still have no barn, no shed, we still have this hesitant blog...like a cow ruminating on a sunny day...we're working on it. You just can't quite see it in an instant perhaps!