May 12 - May 16 Other Yellows

2010-Under the far apple tree a patch of buttercups has appeared.  They are always present in the grass at this time of year, but I don’t remember ever seeing such a patch; so defined you can see them from inside the house.  They are like a beautiful yellow patch of sun shining upwards into the branches of that ancient withering tree and caused me to remember the day, years ago, when I lay underneath the flowering tree in a kind of ecstasy as petals rained down on me.  I wondered if my over spilling emotions had somehow left an energy there that manifested in this golden blooming.
One secret I feel like I am learning from watching more closely is how every season and year is different from ones gone before. There are good years for the apples and bad garden years altogether like last year.  Sometimes the lilacs last forever, while other times you blink and miss them.  The wisteria climbed the lilac tree for years and years expending all its energy in length and bulk, and then, inexplicably, just the right conditions create a fragrant purple waterfall. And this spring the fairy circle of buttercups.
2011-Every time I come inside I find one or more wood ticks crawling on me and usually later on one or two more appear, crawling out of my hair or some such thing.  Yet I haven’t seen one slug.
2012-With the continuing cool spell, I haven’t even been tempted to put out the houseplants, though I have transitioned them to the front porch. Last night again there was a chance of frost though I think it only got close. Next spell of night temps is in the fifties so maybe that will be it for frost. I’m going to plant out the cabbage family stuff though still holding back on the amaranth, cardoons and shiso. “I hope you are waking up to the most beautiful morning in May you have ever anticipated.” Someone on the radio just now. Yes.
2013-When I started my seeds back in ?, I should have held off on the faster growing tender plants, the pumpkins and sunflowers. Last week they seemed too big to keep in pots anymore, so after checking the ten day forecast and confirming the expected temperatures, I planted them out. Well this week’s temperatures began to be forecast lower and lower until finally a freeze warning was issued for tonight. I’ll protect them as much as possible with little milk carton greenhouses, but possibly I just gambled and lost. At times like this I remember to really appreciate farmers whose livelihoods are in the balance.