Simple Pleasures: Nature's tenacity

Yesterday, the sky was full of thousands upon thousands of sandhill cranes migrating north, sometimes playing in the thermals overhead, flying in spiralling clouds that looked as though they might crash into each other. Can you see them? I wish I had a better camera and could capture the sound that makes me look up every time!

Violas also appeared this week, pushing through a crack in the sidewalk.

And the scille that were eaten by some small critter in my yard? Well, a small patch of them survived!

In these days when human news seems to be going from bad to worse and I'm struggling to keep my chin up sometimes, there's nothing like nature's tenacity to remind me that greater forces are at work than human plans and economies.

Things are always changing, and that calls for adaptation. The cranes will adjust their flight paths, the flowers will bloom earlier or later, and wise human beings will find ways to work together for the common good.

Nature's tenacity is in all living things no matter what we two-leggeds do. These days, I'm finding that tenacity everywhere, and delighting in it. It's better than letting the news get me down.

Appreciating simple pleasures improves our happiness quotient!

Cleaning out the greenhouse

Last fall, struggling with that low-grade covid fatigue that many of us carry, I never bothered to clean up our little greenhouse. That made it rather challenging to start seedlings last month without tripping over pots and tracking dirt around. 

Now that all my babies are thriving and it's warm enough to move them outside for short periods, I cleaned up and took a picture of the plantlings set out on our cold frame. They look so happy, and I'm excited about the coming gardening season.

So far, I've got 76 tomatoes of different varieties, a dozen pepper plants (four kinds), four trays of different onions, petunias, geraniums, marigolds, amaryllises, dahlias, calla or canna lilies (or maybe both?) and herbs.

In a month's time, everything will be lanky and more than ready to be planted in garden beds and boxes, but for now, I'm just enjoying these stocky little ones. Life is tenacious, and worth celebrating after a long winter!