Just in from chasing bumblebees in the garden… a fine pastime for a sunny spring day, while the sun plays peek-a-boo with encroaching clouds–some fluffy white, some frowning gray…
The eider down of dandelions-past-their-prime, now reseeding for future generations, is upstaged by the glow of buttercup faces…But the real draw is the overwintered kale now gone to seed, the garden’s first brightness in spring.
The peas are peeking out; potatoes are eyeing sunshine from their dark furrows. The comfrey’s come back with all the power of a mighty weed.
How did I think I would let this season go, for a change, and not do any gardening? Sheer nonsense. I can’t keep myself out of the beds—searching for emerging seedlings, planted and otherwise…on the lookout for new life, excited by the growth that comes once my precious seeds are committed to the dead earth…
It’s hard to let them go. What if they don’t germinate and grow? All will be lost. There’s no instant manufacturing of more seed, only a long season of growth and fruitfulness and maturity. And then the gathering and the storing and the patient waiting for spring. Once in the seed packets, nicely labeled, the seed is mine—holding all the potential of a flourishing garden of veggies and blooms. But it ‘abides alone’, useless really, (no matter how lovely the packaging), if I fail to take the plunge and commit my precious seeds to the ground….
The painful part is passing now. Most of my seeds are planted and hopeful I ramble through the yard bending to see the first shoots, and finding the rewards here and there and the springing hope of summer’s bounty and autumn’s harvest…Yes, it’s a fine day for chasing bumblebees in the garden…
And so glad I am for the plants that reliably spring out of hibernation every spring, mature and ready to bloom where they’ve been planted in bygone years… They brighten my hopes for the rest yet to come!
Wishing you a happy ramble with the bumblebees, rejoicing in the hope of springtime…
–LS
“He that goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him.” Ps.126:6
“…unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone…” Jn.12:24
———————-
For a close-up of some of my precious seeds, go here.
