I can tell Spring is coming. We have sap on the woodstove. And more than the Occasional Egg appearing in our henhouse. (Wouldn't Occasional Egg be a great blog name? Free for the taking if you want it.) 
The Time Change of Saturday has completely devastated the rhythm of one of our boys. It is hard to see him in such a fragile place, out of sorts with sleep, going to bed later and waking up tired, needing more cuddles, sad and mad and REALLY mad about things that seem small to me. But clearly they are Big to him. With his growing skills and talents, it is a hard thing to still find himself in a child's body with adults telling him that he can't just eat bread for supper or that Calvin and Hobbes is not really a bedtime story.
The only things I have control over, now that both my boys are in school for most of their waking hours are: serving healthy food at mealtimes, providing a gentle rhythm that is predictable, and being an anchor adult who is also *mostly* predictable herself. That's it.
March in Maine is a pretty intense time for everyone. We can see the light is coming back, we can feel the growing strength of the sun on our faces, but each and every year I feel a bit devastated by the winter-spring fluctuations. You can't tell your heart not to feel hopeful, but when the next snowstorm comes, or you drop the full bucket of maple sap on your bare toe, your heart is broken anyway. Maybe this is part of what is going on for my boy.And just so I don't have to end on such a bleak note: Check out Annie's blog Artichokes and Asparagus for some great tips on No-Knead sourdough breads and the care and feeding of your sourdough starter. And she is offering some of her own starter to readers of her blog, from a 100 year-old organism, which is just so cool. Annie is a captain and chef on one of our local schooners---a great way to experience Maine from the water---and she does all of this amazing cooking (homemade breads and sweets, wonderful gourmet meals, etc.) from a wood-fired cookstove on her boat all summer, for you know, like 30 people. Thanks, Annie, you've got me thinking of summer now!
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Your description of March here is spot on. I feel for your boy, and hope it smoothes out for him. It's an unfair request of young people to arbitrarily change their natural rhythm overnight. Especially when it's shiny and melty one day and chilly and wintery mix the next.
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me why some eggs are white? And why did I grow up eating white ones when they seem to be brown when you buy local or organic ones? I'm afraid to do a google search on this and find something terrifying!
xo
Hey yourself! Well some chickens lay white eggs, some lay brown eggs, some lay green/blue eggs (araucanas). It is all about what type of breed you are, as a chicken, and whatever one you are you will always be! And so you lay that color egg your whole chicken life. I haven't yet figured out who is laying the green eggs with brown speckles, but they sure are pretty.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of pretty, so is your dress for LEB with that pretty fabric! Go you!
XO
Iris
And speaking of more pretty the photos of the eggs are really beautiful. I love the contrast of the yellow yolks against the intense blue glass..
ReplyDeleteThe seasons here glide. We are moving into autumn. It's not even really cold enough to make all the trees lose their leaves. Some of them hold onto yellow leaves through to spring. We never have snow and get about 2 frosts a year. it gets warmer, it gets cooler. it gets a little cold, then back to warmer.
Those eggs are so beautiful Iris! I have been feeling the exact same feeling about the recent snow storms here... One doesn't wake with such joy to see it snowing mid March as one did in Februrary...
ReplyDeleteToday though we are enjoying a welcome bit of sunshine!
~Emily xx
OK Ir, since you mentioned the occasional egg...are there no eggs in the winter, or just the occasional one? This is coming from a city girl who gets her eggs at the grocery store year round...so I am completely ignorant on the seasonal fluctuations of egg production. Please do tell...
ReplyDeleteEgg production is related to the changing light. In summer, you get eggs maybe every day (I think officially it's every 25 hours or something). In winter, if you don't artificially light your girls, you probably won't get any (in the bleakest darkest parts).
ReplyDeleteI notice things slow way down in the fall, when first the girls molt, then the light is dwindling and eggs aren't happening very often. Then around Candlemas, Feb.2, the light is perceptibly longer---things are brighter and that egg production begins again. Slowly. But there it is.
Also, as mentioned, these girls are mostly perimenopausal, maybe they should be called elderly. So that's why we are ordering new chicks this spring---and of course we'll keep our more mature ladies, who will eat organic feed and continue laying The Occasional Egg.
Is that way more than you wanted to know?
XO
Iris