Between April showers, I’ve been playing in the garden–weeding, digging up perennials to share, planting carrots and greens and sweet peas. My bee colony died in December so I cleaned out the hive and on Saturday I installed a new package of Carniolan honeybees. The next day they were out and about, returning to the hive with pollen. I missed the golden sparks of bees, and it’s a joy to have them buzzing around. The cat and chickens keep me company in the garden while carefully avoiding each other. Henry has been known to pop out of nowhere to startle a chicken minding her own business, but they have been known to chase and peck him when he’s not paying attention. Their antics provoke me into snorts of chuckling.

Something about the garden gathers my focus and slows my thoughts. My attention turns to the feel of fingers in the soil, to tending and ordering. To tiny seeds and their potential. I hear a high-pitched racket moving from south to north and gaze up to see a V of birds winging toward nesting grounds. Not sure what they are, perhaps lesser Canada geese or brant. The lines from Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese” run through my head—-
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to you imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

It is spring and the world is full of possibilities. What will you grow this summer? I offer seeds I collected from agrostemmas last year. They are tall and airy pink annuals, easy to grow in sun with average water. Add a comment to this post if you want some and I will contact you about where to send a small packet of seeds so you can try agrostemma for yourself.