April First

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Temperatures in the seventies, windy and sunny. We got a little rain last night and I see the peas emerging from the soil in the vegetable garden. I planted beets and chard this week and cucumber seed today.

The first violets have shown themselves in the fields and pastures. I see that the pulmonaria is also blooming.

On March 30th, each flock (different breeds of geese; different ponds) elected a nest manager who declared eggs off limits to humans. The nest managers are ganders. They escort the geese in a gentlemanly manner to the nest and guard against all who would take eggs. Later on, they will take the geese and shake them by the neck if they want a break from setting. Ducks are chased away.

Early on, I could take eggs with impunity, as geese are even worse at math than I am. I'd take five and leave one and, silly geese would think that was fine. Now, I must make a wide berth when passing by the nests, pretending not to see.

Annabelle had her calf. I spotted it while talking on the phone. Don and I drove down to check it out later. It's a heifer. I think I'll name her Pulmonaria.

'Just fooling around. I think I'll name her Violet.