"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March."
I'm not really sure what happened to March. I managed a few Villager Facebook Page posts reminding anyone out there (I think we have 30 "LIKE"s) that the second Tuesday in March (New England's Town Meeting Day) is THE day to start planting Tomato, Pepper and Eggplant seeds. It's still fine now but sooner rather than later is good. For more seeding times check here: Truckee Veggies. We are finishing up our Class / Seminar / Event Calendar for 2012, so PLEASE check back. The 2012 schedule will be on the Calendar page. The 2011 calendar is still lurking there. The small Narcissus have been blooming rain, freeze, snow, WHATEVER, since early March. Who, in their right mind wouldn't plant these in their garden. Pest-free, NOTHING eats them, they grow in ANY weather and they need no summer water. Really, it is not too good to be true.
April 1 is the traditional date to plant sweet pea seeds outdoors. Pick a sunny spot. Soak the peas over night. Put them in a wet paper towel in a sandwich bag for a few more days. When the root tip is JUST emerging, plant them two inches deep in a trench amended with Amend compost, lime and Gardener&Bloome organic fertilizer. Bury them just one inch deep and let the trench fill in over the spring.
I love this poem for so many reasons. I had an incredible year-long class at HSU. It was team taught by an English professor (Gage) and a Philosophy professor (Drew). The title was something like Nature & Human Nature and we explored every permutation we could in a year while reading a wonderful selection of literature and study from Greeks, Locke, Rousseau, Faulkner and Lewis Thomas. We read the Frost poem below and it really stuck with me and I have felt fortunate in my life to: " ...to unite, My avocation and my vocation, As my two eyes make one in sight."
Happy spring. If you get too anxious too soon remember that our weather is AT LEAST six weeks behind Reno's. Go ahead and plant wildflower seeds ASAP. Plant any plants that you (or we) have overwintered and are dormant. Deciduous trees and shrubs will put on significant root system expansion before their leaves emerge.
We obviously have a huge selection of seeds and seed starting supplies (soils, trays, pots, pads, feeds).
TWO TRAMPS IN MUD TIME
by Robert Frost
Out of the mud two strangers came
And caught me splitting wood in the yard,
And one of them put me off my aim
By hailing cheerily "Hit them hard!"
I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind
And let the other go on a way.
I knew pretty well what he had in mind:
He wanted to take my job for pay.
Good blocks of oak it was I split,
As large around as the chopping block;
And every piece I squarely hit
Fell splinterless as a cloven rock.
The blows that a life of self-control
Spares to strike for the common good,
That day, giving a loose my soul,
I spent on the unimportant wood.
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.
A bluebird comes tenderly up to alight
And turns to the wind to unruffle a plume,
His song so pitched as not to excite
A single flower as yet to bloom.
It is snowing a flake; and he half knew
Winter was only playing possum.
Except in color he isn't blue,
But he wouldn't advise a thing to blossom.
The water for which we may have to look
In summertime with a witching wand,
In every wheelrut's now a brook,
In every print of a hoof a pond.
Be glad of water, but don't forget
The lurking frost in the earth beneath
That will steal forth after the sun is set
And show on the water its crystal teeth.
The time when most I loved my task
The two must make me love it more
By coming with what they came to ask.
You'd think I never had felt before
The weight of an ax-head poised aloft,
The grip of earth on outspread feet,
The life of muscles rocking soft
And smooth and moist in vernal heat.
Out of the wood two hulking tramps
(From sleeping God knows where last night,
But not long since in the lumber camps).
They thought all chopping was theirs of right.
Men of the woods and lumberjacks,
The judged me by their appropriate tool.
Except as a fellow handled an ax
They had no way of knowing a fool.
Nothing on either side was said.
They knew they had but to stay their stay
And all their logic would fill my head:
As that I had no right to play
With what was another man's work for gain.
My right might be love but theirs was need.
And where the two exist in twain
Theirs was the better right--agreed.
But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.