Seasons Come and Seasons Go
While working at the farm the other day, I paused with rake in hand to really notice my surroundings. It was an unusually warm day so I was wearing a tank top, feeling like it was summer although all the signs indicated that it was in fact Spring. The trees, their swollen twig tips slowly preparing to burst into greenery whipped about in the March winds. With the ground newly exposed by the melting snow, the rich scent of plant life decaying into soil to grow the new saturated the air. Springtime is like a treasure hunt where the inclined head of a flower is partially concealed beneath its mulch of forest leaves and tiny seeds find their way to crevices in old logs and sprout excitedly into life. Summer allows us to estivate while Spring demands that we search out its delights.
Still standing with my rake, transfixed by my musings, my eyes wandered over the greenhouses, fields and barn as I recalled previous Springs and Summers. They unfolded in much the same way yet my experience of them manages to change each year. There is always something new harbored in the old of the reoccurring. Nature is never stagnant, in physical reality or in our perception of its workings; together we are continuously evolving.
Sometimes to really notice our surroundings takes a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective. Our apprentices provide this for us each season, taking pleasure in the everyday occurrences that we have forgotten are extraordinary.
Farming never fails to make me think!
~Hannah
