All Signs Point to Spring

It's such a fabulous time of year. The flowers are blooming, the vegetable garden is thriving, birds are chirping, and The Farm Montessori had its Spring Festival. All three of my girls have attended The Farm and if they offered classes through high school, they'd all still be there. Cholita just finished her first year.

Now that she's finished with school, she has more time to help around the house which in turn gives me more work to do. But she does provide me with interesting stories to tell around the dinner table.

A mother bird has moved into Cholita's birdhouse. The girls check on her daily and she snaps her beak at them if they get too close. Lucy told me they named her Angela because it means God's messenger. As the threesome skipped outside, Rose yelled, "Isn't that perfect?" I thought it seemed rather exalted for a bird, but I guess she's as much God's messenger as anyone else.

The climbing rose is blooming. Would you believe it's a yellow rose? The red buds go through every shade of orange before they bloom yellow. It's always in its full glory just in time for our own little Rose's birthday in June, which she thinks is fitting.

The asparagus is coming up and Lyle has started his yearly chant, "I cuss, you cuss, we all cuss for ASPARAGUS!" Asparagus is a more complicated crop than any of the others we've tried and Lyle is fairly protective of it. I have to ask before I harvest anything in the asparagus bed.

Cholita has taken on the watering job. I love how she has to hold up her dress. She's the daintiest gardener I know.

She makes it look so fun that the other kids beg to have a turn.

Cho seems reluctant to share.

I planted a Nelly Moser clematis against the barn and I check on it almost as much as the girls check on the bird. The flowers are so gorgeous.

I find it amazing that with just the slightest bit of guidance, the brittle, skinny little vines twine around the trellis and grab hold.

Something about its upward climb seems encouraging and makes me happy and hopeful. I think it's the same feeling my girls get when they look at the mother bird. Maybe I'll name my clematis Angela too.