Mark finished his long winter of seed packing and is now back at Harvest Hill this summer working as a crew leader and Bill's right hand man. The interns have arrived and they all seem awesome. I worked there for a day last week and helped transplant a bunch of brassicas and lettuce into the fields. It was fun to be out there, but I'm glad I'm not farming full time this summer. However, I do hope to be periodically called in to help out. Mark loves it and is feeling super optimistic about this season. He already brought home a giant bag of spinach and I scored some starts for my garden.
Even though I thought it would never happen, winter is finally over! The snow lasted until almost the end of April, but now the grass is green, flowers are blooming and the trees are no longer naked!
An excellent homage to this change of seasons was celebrated on May 1st. Every year in Montpelier there is an 'All Species Day' celebration. It starts in the park and then a parade shuts down the streets and wends its way from Hubbard Park to the state capital. Here are a few photos. It was a gorgeous day full of tons of great energy (and hippies!)
Opening circle. A few of our friends are in the dance. They had this great body paint on and since it was so sunny, they all got these crazy awesome tan lines.
Mark and I in the parade.
My friend and co-worker William, one of the masters of ceremony for the event.
Show at the statehouse.It was a beautiful day and a nice kick off to the start of spring. I know the calendar says it started March 21st, but up here in VT, it took a little longer! Though I didn't feel this way in March, I can now honestly say it was worth the wait.
Speaking of things that take a long time, I finally finished the baby quilt for Penelope Ray Prinbeck, lovely daughter to Cosmo and Gwenn, that had been consuming my life for a good 6-8 months. It was a fun project and it felt amazing to finally send it on its way. I first silk-screened some of Mark's jellyfish onto plain pieces of fabric, then cut out more squares from various patterned pieces. I machine sewed them together which took no time and then spent the next 6 months hand quilting. I had had the best of intentions to get it done and sent before Penelope was born in December...but as always happens, I forget how long my projects tend to take. However, it is finally with it's rightful owner and as the family is moving to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands at the end of the summer, it turned out to be a very appropriately themed quilt!
Finished project!
Mark's jellyfish. My hand quilting.
Closeup.Other things that have happened since my LA trip include Mark taking a trip to Austin for SXSW. He saw lots of great music, ate a bunch of breakfast tacos, saw a grip of good friends and generally had an awesome time. He spent the week walking around in shorts and a t-shirt in the 80+ degree weather. The night I picked him up from the airport, it snowed over a foot. Oh Vermont...
Mark turned 29 and had an epic dress up potluck/dance party/freeze tag dodgeball game to celebrate. Our friends braved mud season and turned out in force.
Oh, what's mud season, you ask? It's a disaster! Once the snow starts to melt, all the dirt roads turn to mud. I didn't realize how serious this mud was until I sunk up to my axles on Noyestar, unable to go backwards or forwards. My tailpipe was a mere quarter inch above the squishy mud. Luckily at the third house I tried a family was home and a very friendly stranger grabbed a giant tow chain, hopped into his truck and proceeded to pull the poor little subaru out of the giant mudhole where I had lodged her. He then followed me back to the pavement, just in case I got stuck again. You can never underestimate the kindness of strangers. Mud season lasts for over a month and makes every trip down a back road an exciting, occasionally terrifying adventure. Until I experienced it, I never got the joke that Vermont has 5 seasons, the fifth one being mud season. Now I get it.
Maggie and Hank have both adjusted to city living with ease. Hank is busy staking out his territory and therefore comes home with various cuts and bumps, but it hasn't dampened his spirits. My boss and friend Maggie McGuire has found him in her kitchen more than once, via the cat door. Maggie (the dog, not my boss) doesn't seem to notice much difference between town and country, possibly because she's getting the best of both worlds. Mark takes her to work on the farm, so she gets to run around and then when she comes home, she gets to go for long walks most of which she spends peeing on every imaginable surface. Looks like she's staking out her territory too. When she's not peeing or farming, she's generally doing this:
Or this.
At least she's not bored, right?
Well, that's the spring update. Look forward to more adventures in the coming months, including a visit from Peggy and Warren. I hope wherever you are flowers are blooming and sun is shining!
