by Joanne Wiklund
Well, Spring is officially here and we’re on our way to April. Is it just me or is time flying? What I need now is to see the blooms on the nine spots of daffodils that are up about four inches. We will have snow again once they bloom, traditionally, but daffodils are tough. If I were a flower, I’d be a daffodil. Deer won’t eat them, either, because they are members of the onion family. I’ve always wanted to plant them in a drift down over the pasture behind me.
When that was pasture there with Little Grandpa’s four or five Angus steers there, in the Spring it was a riot of flowers. I’d take our little kids with a bucket and we would walk down the hilly pasture to the timber and the small pond. Once in a while we’d find a little mallard on the pond. It was small, surrounded by mud banks. Great place in the nearby meadow for young boys to tent camp. One of the friend campers woke one morning to a noise close to his tent. Lying on his stomach, he pushed back the flap and found himself nose to nose with a deer who was sniffing the tent flap.
On the way back from our walk, slower of course, all uphill, the kids and I took our time gathering wildflowers: Lilies of the Valley, Dutchman’s Britches, Violets, and Sweet Williams. We didn’t always put them in water. Sometimes we dug them and planted them. Some lived awhile, some didn’t. We brought two small Cedar trees, however, up in a bucket and planted them close to each other. They are still there, grown to intertwine because we put them too close. They are taller than the garage now. One is really bad, and I asked our arborist if we should cut it down. He told me no because they are so grown together if we cut the bad one down, the remaining one could not live without its partner. I understand that more than ever now. I’m planning to add some more deer resistant flowers to the landscape. If you know of any they ignore, let me know soon what they are. I can’t wait to dig in the dirt.
John 6:37 “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me…”
John 36:40 “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”