spring/fall

Spring on my tiny homestead.

Now days, thanks to overly cheap energy, we can buy anything we want in the fresh section of the grocery store -- year round.

Strawberries, tomatoes, asparagus, they are all there, at moderate prices, year round. But the off season strawberries are made of wood, the tomatoes only look like tomatoes and I have never actually bought asparagus at $3 a pound in the winter.

Here on the tiny homestead, we eat in season, or what will keep for the next season. This is early for a north garden, but we have had a lot of really good asparagus, our new strawberry plants are producing very fine tasting berries, and we have super salads, and we eat a big green salad just about every day.

Tomatoes are coming, and when they do there will be buckets of them, fresh ripe and so tasty. Soon we will have fresh peas and new potatoes, a combination I remember from childhood.

I think this enjoyment of the season’s bounty is a good lesson for life. Our kids want to be adults and “enjoy” the adult fares before their season. We want year round joy and excitement, but it does not work out well.

This is spring, time for me to stretch those flabby winter muscles and breathe deep. Summer is coming and if the spring work was done well, I will be able sit in the shade when it is hot and enjoy the looks and taste of my work.

Right now I am wallowing in this spring time, enjoying every moment of it. It is the spring of the year, but we are in the fall of our lives now. Each season has it’s rewards and joys.

Spring love is intense and wonderful, but old seasoned love is deep and comfortable.

I would much prefer that Miriam not have this horrible disease, but she does. And disease or not, we are going to live and love to the maximum.

Today I go to see my 30 something lady doctor. She will say that for an old goat I am in remarkably good health, or something like that. She will like my blood pressure. She will inquire about whether I am able to get away and have personal time. She will be concerned but not worried.

I sure would not have asked for any of this, be it old age or Alzheimer’s, but it is here, and my job is to make the best of it. We have lived healthy, careful lives and now is the payday.

Thanks Mom.