Uprooted, Seeing Green, and Other News Fresh From the Farm

Inside: Uprooted and grounded, watching the grass grow, and when birds become optimists. Check out all the latest news fresh from the farm on A Rural Girl Writes.

Uprooted and Grounded

The wind brought us a present the other night. One of the Chinese elms out front toppled over, thankfully not hurting anything else aside from a smaller tree next to it, and that one might survive after all.

Under a wind advisory from the National Weather Service, I had a hard time sleeping as the gale force winds descended upon us right before midnight. Sometime around five thirty I opened the door to let Clarence outside and happened to notice one of the trees in the yard looked short. I squinted again and realized that was because it had been uprooted during the night. Strangely, though, I didn’t hear the tree fall. Mike said it sounded like a big thud, though he didn’t think at the time it was a tree falling over.

This isn’t the first time we’ve lost a tree. But this time around has got me thinking of the word uprooted. More often I’ve heard the term to describe a person who has moved away from home or lost a job, but I’ve never stopped to think much about it. When you see a tree lying flat, roots pushed up from the ground, it leaves a mental picture which conveys just how devastating that can actually be. A wide, gaping hole is left behind. Not something that can be easily filled.

Only something new can fill it. Which gave me a great idea. I was having trouble figuring out what to ask for my birthday, but now I know. A tree with beautiful fall leaves that will sink its roots deep into the soil.

Watching the Grass Grow

I’ve been seeing green lately, and not of the seven deadly sins variety. I’ve been watching the grass grow. Yes, literally. Day by day I’ve been watching fields of tan slowly turn sage in color. It’ll be a while before we get to kelly green, but we’re getting there.

Thank that yellow ball in the sky I’ve been spotting lately. We haven’t seen a lot of it this winter, but this past week has been sunshiny and bright. One of these days we might even be able to say sun-drenched. We’ve got a while before that, though.

And it’s not just the grass that has benefitted from the sun’s appearance. My disposition has improved immensely.

You might say it’s downright sunny.

When Birds Become Optimists

You have to admire the birds this time of year. It can’t be easy out there, in the cold, singing up a storm so that maybe spring will wake up and notice. Adverse conditions don’t keep them down. They don’t pay attention to the gloomy forecast the weather people have served up for the next ten days. It never stops them from their tasks. And here I am, complaining about the weather, often letting the temperature or wind chill determine my mood.

Large flocks of blackbirds stopped by yesterday on their way north. Despite the lingering winter, they’re actually a little early from when I normally see them. A good note to end February on.

Tomorrow March comes.

More green.

More bird songs.

Spring.

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