Good morning. I took you around the farmy yesterday. Yesterday was a day of bird song. It was still, overcast and bright. Which is actually a perfect day for the camera if you want some serious light for the densest colour in your images. Sadly we are still waiting in line for our spring colours, my sepia world persists. I would like to have shown you the birds but they were way, way up in the tops of the trees. But I know I heard a red-winged blackbird, and the mourning doves are back. Their spring song was sunny all in itself. The exciting news is that my Cardinal has appeared, he comes every spring with his wife to nest high up in the mulberry tree. Cardinals are very cheeky birds, bright orange and they flit about like little nightclub lights.
My lambing pen sits quietly. Waiting like me. With the really big barn doors open, you can see inside. Look at that fantastic old hand made gate. It is almost one hundred years old and is one of my favourite barn gates. 
No lambs yet, just a cat. Thing One I think, but he was so fast asleep in the cleanest pen in the place that he did not even raise his head the lazy sod. What if I had been a big fat mouse!?. 
Because it has been steadily getting a wee bit warmer in the last few weeks, the bees have been up and about. You will see that we have moved the blog hive away from the big trees. It was just too cold in the North shadow of that shelter belt. When we lifted it, we found that it was quite light, too light, (they have eaten up their stores of honey) so I have begin to feed all the bees sugar water.- see the little jars? – once I start this I must continue, probably until Late March, Early April – whenever the first flowers are in full bloom. But for now the bees are buzzing all over looking for food, with day after day in the upper 40’s. So I am forced to feed them sugar water. Especially this weaker hive. The problem with feeding this early is that the bees will become active and the queen might start laying so that is why I have to make sure not to miss a day until the first decent run of flowers. 
No grass in Pat’s Field. Of course not – it is way to early! I am going to drive you batty for weeks now, staring at the fields willing that grass to grow! And we all know how exciting it is watching grass grow. Actually for me it kind of is!! 
Look at that rain cloud. Though we had no rain yesterday. It is so exposed out here. The spring winds will start soon. Maybe I should create some kind of sound track so you can hear the howl of the winds hurling across the plains.. not yet though, not yet. For the moment we are still.
We are entering the time of year that I call the slog. It feels like spring should be coming. We feel like surely we can wear one less layer of clothing. It is not cold enough to light the fire but not warm enough to open all the windows. The nights are almost above freezing but not warm enough to leave the seedlings out at night. So hundreds of little plants in their paper pots lined up in their trays, are carried out every morning that is over 40F and carried back in that evening. The floors are covered in plants at night. I stare and stare across the tundra desperately seeking green.
Today I start to clear the flower gardens. I never cut down old plants in the autumn, I like to leave the seeds heads up until the birds have got every little mouthful out of there. So today I start to clear and compost. 
Ok enough chatting. The dawn is here, (this is the view out my loft study window about three minutes ago as promised) I had better hurry up and publish!! Looks like there may be a bit of rain heading our way. I am off outside to play.
Good morning.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
92 responses to “Walkabout the Farmy on a Still Sepia Day”
Since we actually had rain (ahhhhh) this “winter” (we are supposed to reach the low 80s today!) I got nothing *but* grass… or at least green stuff, in my yard. Wanna bring your critters over? I think I need to rent a few sheep. I love your photos and how you share… thank you!
Sometimes (actually, often) I think starkness is more beautiful than color or lushness: your photographs are a case in point!
I concur!
Can’t wait for the return of the red winged blackbirds here. Their call is one of my favorites, and a reminder that summer isn’t too far away.
I don’t clear my gardens either in the Fall, in the hope that last year’s growth will protect the perennials over Winter. Probably wasn’t necessary this year although I’m glad I didn’t clear it earlier this week. We’ve got 4 to 9 inches of snow in the forecast overnight tonight. Gonna be a busy morning tomorrow! I hope you’re far enough South to avoid getting hit by the brunt of the storm.
Well it had to come I suppose, we have snow showers forecast and i really don’t mind if you keep most of it up there with you!! maybe I will leave off in the garden for a day or two in that case!! c
Poor hungry bees!
They have had a very strange winter too! Morning Mad! c
Now THAT is a sunrise!
Stunning dawn sky. I can’t wait to see the fruits of your labor and your honey bee hives. How interesting! BAM
Awesome dawn shot…and there’s the color for your barn in there somewhere, Cecilia! Good morning!
good thinking betsy!! c
Thank for the wonderful trip around the farmy, C! This walk was very calming and soothing, things missing in our hectic life at times. 🙂
What a vivid shot at dawn – makes the sky look like it’s on fire! Good morning!
Good afternoon C. What a beautiful dawn you witnessed this morning. I was trying to imagine the sound of the wind whipping across the plains – it must be quite a howl as I assume there is little in the way of wind breaks in all that wide open space.
I leave for work at sunrise, Celi, and have the most beautiful drives in…the San Gabriel mountains to my left, and the sun peeking up straight ahead. But I don’t have the expansive uncluttered horizon you clearly do, soI love your photo! And despite our relative warmth, spring is spring, and the birds are starting to shift their habits, beginning to nest and twitter about a bit more. I love this time of year. Orioles are not a west coast bird, but every spring, usually late April or Early May, we will catch sight of one or two for maybe two days tops right at our birdfeeders and like your Cardinals, they just bring joy. I’m watching for them! You have a lovely, cared-for farmy! I love visiting each day. Debra
Oh wow, Debra, that sounds fantastic, I bet you just roll those windows down and sing in the morning on your way to work!! c
We saw our firs red wing blackbird at the feeder this morning. The beauty is only beginning.
The last picture of the farmhouse in the dreary weather reminded me of an Andrew Wyeth painting.
Ronnie
Oh my … the sky pic is stunning. So tell me, how large is your compost pile?
Two of them Frank, they are getting pretty large actually. When the barn is finally cleaned out for the summer they will be Fantastic!! c
I would never have even thought about what happens when the bees wake up and there’s no food! Where do you learn this stuff, Celi? It is wisdom which must be thousands of years old. Bee husbandry. I feel a post coming on 😀
I am fairly sure I am breaking rules all the time, I just follow my instincts and when the bees are bombing me and landing on my hands they are hungry, looking for something sweet. I am sure it is too early but there you are.. c
What a magnificent sunrise. There you are , ‘desperately seeking green’, while after our wettest summer that I can ever remember, everything is green, green, green. We have plenty to spare. May it fly across the world to you.
Morning Juliet!! Wonderful to get some good rain though, I come from Hawke’s Bay and I cannot even remember a wet summer, I hope they got plenty of your rain up there as well.. Now i am going to pop over and see what you have been up to.. c