
There are signs of shallots sprouting at last, in spite of recent really strong winds, gusting sometimes up to 60mph, which scoured the garden surface and completely redistributed a great deal of the mulch.

Asparagus, too, is sending up beautiful spears everywhere I look in the asparagus patch. I ate two of these raw, right there in the garden after photographing them: my first 6th Avenue Shala grown asparagus, crisp, crunchy and so sweet.

Inspired by these first signs of spring, I wandered down to the local feed and farm store to find they had fruit trees in stock.

The only cherry in amongst all the apples, peaches and pears was a variety called Dwarf North Star. Of course it came home with me: who can resist a name like that?

The North Star is now standing sentinel in a nice sunny, south facing spot in the front garden. Hopefully it will take root and grow up to give the front porch privacy from the street, produce filling for a lot of pies and provide a point to chart a course by, as any good north star should.

Two varieties of onion and two varieties of potato also went into the ground in the front eastern sector today.

Applied wayfinding: navigating by the seasons, tending a food garden. It’s a thing to do with a “one wild and precious life”.
Summer Day - Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open,
and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
how to fall downinto the grass,
how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed,
how to stroll through the fields
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
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