29 April 2022
The thaw.
Runoff from the hills has filled the brook to the west of our house, and the pond is full to the brim. The water is crystal clear- there are fish!
Most of the snow melted in March, save for a few patches shaded by the house and tucked in the woods. The ups and downs of March meant good sugaring - Terrence tapped some maple trees lining the brook.
Taking shape.
Pruning apple trees in the lower, middle and upper orchards. Scraggle old trees line the trail that is just beyond the stone wall that rings the meadow, and curve up the hill to the property line and upper orchard.
Terrence spent the Winter developing an app and outlining a new business. More on that soon.
Last weekend we had a visit from an engineer to help us prioritize the projects we envision for the brick house, barn, and white house.
Coming into focus
Over ten years ago, when Tea moved out of his office in Boston’s Chinatown, most of the equipment was put into storage in Providence. We’ve been slowly moving boxes to Vermont. Terrence found his darkroom equipment and we are hoping to develop the film I’ve been shooting since we got here. I’ve been printing my lake photos from 2020-2021, and love the way they printed on glossy paper at 11 x 17. We also have brought up the screen press- and are slowly moving the rest of the screen printing gear.
I’ve been working on updating our property map and adding the walking trails we defined over the winter.
Planting seeds
Last week I began my new role as Librarian of the Groton Free Public Library, and started seeds for our garden.
The earliest spring wildflowers have started to show up in the woods- bloodroot, hepatica, blue cohosh, coltsfoot. In the garden and lower orchard we have a massive amount of daffodils beginning to emerge through the leaves and tulips popping up showing us where garden beds used to be. My friend Deb gifted me some snowdrops and I planted those just to the west of the house next to a big patch of daylilies. We also discovered a bunch of rhubarb!
Ramps are starting to pop up, and soon enough we will be out there foraging, we hope, for morels.
