Another Plum Bites the Dust

This crane fly was alight on my shower curtain, but they are everywhere right now, much to our annoyance.
This crane fly was alight on my shower curtain, but they are everywhere right now, much to our annoyance.

I didn’t have any late afternoon or evening assignments at work so I was home by about three. It is cloudy and warm out, so by five I decided to get some yard work done. I pondered digging the garden. When I told Abby that I was planning a garden this year, her face lit up, so I know she is looking forward to having it. (Last year I just seemed to know not to plant, and the summer was one of the worst drought seasons we have ever experienced.) As I started to work, I discovered I had other priorities, like removing the elm saplings from the Rose-of-Sharon bushes, and pruning some of Dorothy’s peach trees. I took most of the branches

The usual suspect: Buxton the Goat checks out some peach branches I threw over the fence for him.
The usual suspect: Buxton the Goat checks out some peach branches I threw over the fence for him.

and gave them to Buxton the Goat, who seemed so excited by my presence that he couldn’t quite make himself eat them, and instead ran around and chattered at me.

I discovered that my suspicions that one of my plum trees had died were true, so I dug it up and threw it on the burn pile. I grabbed a camera to illustrate it, but found better things to photograph, like some of the flowers down at Dorothy’s. If I get the chance in the next day or two, I should cut some and take them to her.

I noted that all the trees and pastures and flowers and clover patches and everything else doesn’t grow larger in any predictable fashion. This late winter season has been much wetter than the last few years, and there is a thick, straight grass that I’ve never seen before growing thickly in all the pastures and our back yard . We are also seeing an amazing number of crane flies everywhere, like we have never seen before.

Like life itself, the only consistent thing I have observed about the life on our little patch of green is change.

Dorothy's Daffodils caught my eye from 100 yards away. I didn't know until I looked it up today that they are the same flower as the Narcissus.
Dorothy’s Daffodils caught my eye from 100 yards away. I didn’t know until I looked it up today that they are the same flower as the Narcissus.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *