Spring

In the now on this small farm, Spring has come swiftly, weeks maybe even a month sooner than most years. I have no idea if we will ever again have a March like this one. My mind can’t quite let go of some primal need to sort and sift and consider if there is a climate change pattern at work here, but the rest of me is quite content to just enjoy the wonderful feeling of being out and about in the gardens in a t-shirt when usually I am still garbed in winter gear.

I do feel badly for friends who depend on the maple sugaring season as a major part of their farm revenues. The maple sugaring season has been a serious bust, as we have had few of the freezing nights necessary and the days have been so warm that the trees are all but budded out. This budding is unfortunate because it brings on late season strange urine colored sap that doesn’t make for good syrup. With my own small sugaring operation, last year I got fifteen gallons of syrup from thirty one maple taps, while this year I doubt I will get over seven gallons from forty taps.

I must say, I happily trade a short sugaring season for the glory of this weather and all the Flowers that have come along so swiftly because of its sudden and steady warmth.

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Winter Aconite, as cheerful and bright as a midsummer Buttercup, but perhaps more defiant of convention as it blooms in the snow not the midsummer heat.

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Witch Hazel with its explosion of color. What a potent gem.

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Here a Hellebore begins its slow luxurious unfurling.

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Our old friend Crocus. How happily our surviving honeybees head for its offering of pollen.

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The bold Iris reticulata opened today. I would leave the patch to do some garden chore then moments later I would return to find more blossoms opened as if by fast action photography.

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And who could forget noble friend, the Snowdrop. Is there any other early spring Flower that brings more pleasure, arriving as it does when winter holds sway?

The Winter Aconite is new in the gardens and this week has just become a Flower Essence for the first time. I need to spend time transcribing its purpose in its own words, but I feel it supports self forgiveness and a swift passage through to new territory when we have faced an old and inharmonious behavioral pattern. owned our role in its perptuation, and desire to begin anew.

I was grateful for Winter Aconite’s arrival this week as I was wrestling with my tendency to micromanage one aspect of my childrens’ lives that was clearly none of my business. I felt the Winter Aconite calling to me in the garden and I was glad because I was quite kicking myself as I saw this pattern more clearly than ever. I wanted to let go and move on without the retroactive remorse that can sometimes gum up the works for me, and Winter Aconite promised that this was a piece of its wisdom, helping us to move on when we see the error of our ways without letting us get stuck in, “how could I have behaved this way” sort of remorse. Like its bright yellow Flowers unfurling from frozen earth, it takes us forward swiftly and cheerfully to new terrain.

Ben is trying to get me to practice my linking skills on the blog, so here I go with this remark: all of these Flower Essences are available and all but Winter Aconite and Crocus are described for you on our Additional Flower Essence list. (And I will get Jess or Ben to upload a revised link with the definition for Winter Aconite and Crocus soon).

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