Celebrating the Equinox

Too true. Did you know that witches also celebrate the equinox as a sacred time of the year?

Indeed witches celebrate all the calendar feasts. Happy equinox, witches! Other religions celebrate the seasons too. Christmas, that's the solstice, is a big one for anyone in seasonal climates: return of the light. Equinox: enough light for things to start growing!

The spring equinox is celebrated by the Kurdish too, it's their new year "Newroz", that's tomorrow the 21st. They all go camping and dance around a fire .

Sound like pagans!

Gotta love a pagan, lots of dancing around fires.

Aw, go blow it outta Mother Nature's bloomin' gown!

What the equinox really means is that starting at precisely noon today the wife is going to start gazing dreamily out the window and saying:

"You know, you really need to mow the yard soon. And I've been thinking about some really BIG landscaping projects you can work on this year. Now where did I put that garden catalog?"

GAAAA! Dang spring with all it's beautiful living things and nice weather and chirpy dang birds.

dear Guest, who comes begging for justice with his partner,

I see you're suffering from an imbalance here. If your wife loves the garden, wouldn't she enjoy doing the landscaping herself? Why don't you suggest that she should take on the landscaping this year, and you will do ? something in exchange or instead. What is she usually doing when you are mowing?

Perhaps she will mow the lawn instead of shaving her legs. Maybe you will be doing the cooking? I don't know guest, but I hope you find a happy change that suits both. Good luck with it.

Oh, I was just carrying on cranky to be silly.

Of course I don't really mind the Missus' floral flights of fancy. If she sentences me to involuntary servitude in acts of sadistic labor, breaking my poor withered body out in the unbearable heat of the merciless cancer-giving sunshine then that's a very small price to pay indeed in exchange for the pleasure of her numerous irresistible and wondrous charms.

But still...mowing. Ugh.

Arizona we have gone to gravel and concrete?

the "Zen garden" approach is really beautiful. (Then again, raking rocks instead of mowing..? Probably less work all the same)

I must admit I am not into mowing either. I designed my garden with raised beds of perennials, gravel paths among them. All I have to worry about is nature's bounty taking over...

Proving yet again that the most ingenious of our forefathers did not dither and set roots in the Eastern states but rather pressed onward to pursue the limitless opportunities of the untamed West!

If I were unfortunately on my own I would adopt your brilliant "lawn" suggestion in a tick shorter than Planck time.

However the Missus' is nothing if not fastidious and would have me sorting each gravel by size, color, shape and tonal quality generated when rattled in a well-cleaned decaffeinated coffee can. And the concrete would have to be freshly painted in a different color scheme for every special occasion.

So perhaps a weekly diversion to decapitate the dandelions isn't such a bad fate after all.

And the concrete would have to be freshly painted in a different color scheme for every special occasion.

We find lawn green to be strange enough

Busting rock into gravel and concrete? Have sought professional help

"But still...mowing. Ugh."

Buy her a pet this year. A pet goat then there will be no need to mow the lawn.

nice puppy bwire. expecting a rainy spring, then?

our weather just took a relapse here.. expecting 35 cm of snow today ..I'd rather mow than shovel, on the first day of spring

Bolt on the turf aerator and mow the snow

Great pics bwire

- were any dogs harmed in making these pictures?

jt.

Nah he was modeling the equipment only

My 'straight lines' started three weeks ago with a job we dearly love doing....tapping maple trees in deep snow and the rigor mortis that sets in on a daily basis.

Between then and two weeks from now our workday is 25 hrs. long (I slept in today)....and then it's 'gardening time'.......as in planting billions of tiny seeds in starter containors, watering the damn things and making sure the greenhouse doesn't freeze overnight...........

ah, yes, spring comes to the Canadian farmer.. no doubt with the usual accoutrements. . Well, I wish you a bountiful year, and a day off when the 25-hour-day scene is over. (that's all you're getting.. really! alas I know it....)

I planted sugar maples some years ago but they are a long way from production. I planted hazels and I have had a few handfuls of nuts but every spring it's the big question.. will we get pollination before the frost takes the catkins... (o ya, thought I'd get a leg up on the global 'warming' scene.. O well..)

You must be in my neck of the woods. Algonquin east?

We have wild plum that are the first to flower and in the 25 years of living here I've only seen them bear fruit once...frost wipes them out. Hazlenuts also.

Those are very good snowshoes though the plastic has a tendency to crack when temperatures are in -30'C range. I'm on my second pair in as many years.

Rivers of sap this past week. Very high carbohydrate and calcium content this year. Good year for maple syrup!!

Just the thought of maple syrup makes me hungry... I hope it's a good year for all my favourite things

With the early flowering stuff like these plums, hazels, pine nuts and others, the way to tease the most out of the microclimate is to plant them on north facing slopes. These cooler areas are last to thaw in spring: so the flowering is later and the chance of frost losses are minimized. Seems counterintuitive but it does make a difference.

Your apparent fondness exudes an inner motivation of love for the environment and the procession of the seasons.

Actually.......it's called exhaustion, no sleep and way too much work to be done in too short a time.

Thanks for your well articulated sentiment. I 'use' my environment in a way that I would like to think is assertable, believable, conceivable, credible, defendable, defensible, feasible, imaginable, maintainable, rational, reasonable, supportable, sustainable, viable and workable . For that I owe a vote of thanks to some of the local farmers. Most all else is a learning curve.

HUMBLE THOUGHTS...

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." -- Neil Armstrong

My Thoughts stretched from Psalms 1 ¹Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. ²But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. ³And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Once a question was posed to me of Autumn; with its likeness, I now turn it posed here, just to wonder; of "spring": Spring Today, How do you personally sense the change in seasons?
Is spring more of a season in itself, or a transition period? Some links I found for variety http://planetaryenergies.net/2009/03/19/planetary-energies-spring-equinox-2009/ http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/time-facts/equinoxes-and-solstices http://www.earthsite.org/ http://www.mythinglinks.org/springequinox2000~Sapling.html http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/03/20/arts_culture/monkeybrains/doc49c22d5933264787334962.txt http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/03/20/arts_culture/monkeybrains/doc49c30868da5ca050514121.txt For now, here I wondered "is it about order?" Ole_Ship ^ Fulcfrom ^

humble reply...

Thank you for your thoughts on the beautiful psalms.

How do you personally sense the change in seasons? Here in the north, spring is only a hint at the equinox. At this time, I know spring is coming only because, if I am outdoors at sunset or dawn, I will hear the snipe that have returned to the frozen marsh, making sweet, mysterious sound with their wings, performing their courtship flights. Also I feel the effects of the light. My house is warmer because of the sun, and it is not so much work to heat. I feel more alert and creative because of the longer daylight, and energized to work.

When spring truly comes, I feel the final relief of the constraints of winter. I feel freedom to travel when I see the bare ground. I feel opportunity when my feet feel the softness of newly melted ground: a brief opportunity to be seized, because many seemingly impossible tasks: moving boulders, clearing stumps, can be realized only in this window of a few days when the ground is deeply softened. I feel joy at the sight of the first flower, all stresses banished by that sight alone, the vigour of life renewed. I feel gratitude for the first leaf of dandelion fit to eat, and my body praises it. I feel kinship with the birds as they hurry about the garden, finding their needs and singing their life songs. I feel tolerance when I see snowshoe hare nibbling new leaves instead of stripping buds and bark, and fair balance when I see that moose have left manure in their browsing. I feel wonder when I see grouse comically perched on a bare fruit tree and pruning the buds on the top of the branch, as they told me to do in the book. Thanks, grouse! I feel responsibility when I see the size of the first bumblebee, hopefully a big bustling queen out foraging for her brood. I look around and see that I need more early flowers to give better sanctuary to the bees, and I must hurry to plant some more.

Is spring more of a season in itself, or a transition period? I think of spring as a turning point. Here in the north it is a brief window of opportunity to play a role in the fruitfulness to come. Seize the day joyfully, and enjoy reward.

"Everything you can imagine is real." -- Pablo Picasso