In the past, I never truly appreciated the spring season. As everyone does, I have an internal ranking of favorite seasons: summer for its long days, warmth and profusion of green; autumn for its mercurial transitional nature; winter for its cold bleak desolation. Spring was always last on that list. It's warmer than winter but not quite warm enough. Other than Easter, there are no major holidays to look forward to. Spring was always that period you just have to get through in order to move into summer.
But all that changed this year. In a previous post I chronicled the transformation of our yard. This spring, the stress and frustration of wondering "how can we fix this yard," and transformed into appreciating it and planning for the future. I've also taken interest in the living things that call our patch of land home, all the birds, bugs, beasts, grass, flowers, and trees that make up our little biome.
So here are some of the things I've done, am doing, or plan to do to get more in tune with the local nature:
- Set up a bird feeder. We have one, but are planning on getting more (like, a half dozen or so). It's set up in view of our living room windows and it's been great watching the types of birds that visit. I use this page to identify them. So far we've had visits from blue jays, cardinals, crows, robins, black-capped chickadees, song sparrows, house sparrows, mourning doves, and white-breasted nuthatches. Being on top of a hill, I've also seen red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures circling overhead, and being near the ocean, the occasional herring gull will coast by.
- Mornings on the deck. This one is a bit tougher as it involves a change in routine. I've been trying to make a habit of setting an alarm for shortly after sunrise so I can grab a cup of coffee and spend a few minutes out on deck, soaking up the sights, sounds, and smells before the kids wake up and the day begins. There's something special about early dawns in the spring; the air is cool, if not cold, but when the sun first peeks over the distant trees there's a wonderful blast of warmth and light. Things are waking up, the birds are warming up their dawn chorus, one or two of the more industrious bumblebees may be making their rounds before the competition heats up. There's a general hush about, with isolated sounds making their way to my ears, like a distant dog barking to be let in, or the far-off crowing of someone's rooster. So far it's been a peaceful and energizing start to these spring days.
- Building raised garden beds. This one has been a long time coming. As in, we've planned for years to do them, but never have. Any gardening in past years has been limited to some tomatoes and herbs in big pots. But with the new space we've created, we have room to build a proper raised bed. We'll be using concrete blocks, as we have a surplus of them lying around (they used to line the fence to prevent the previous owners' dog from digging under, so when we replaced the fence we piled the blocks in a corner). The Mrs. has a number of seeds started already, and we'll be transplanting them outside as soon as the temperature allows. I'm looking to do something like this:
That's it for now. Now to read up on companion planting so we can plan out the garden beds. Take care, and remember to stay mindful!
No comments:
Post a Comment