The Trees are Singing

On Earth Day evening, the Cantankerous Farmer (who was actually quite Content, reading a book on the porch with an amber-colored beverage) and I heard the first whippoorwills of the season. There were two calling from the woods on either side of the porch, with us sitting between listening. This is the marker that true spring has arrived.

I had never heard a whippoorwill before living in Cedarville. My first year here, I fell in love with them. They begin calling as dark sets in, from all directions in the woods, calling and answering, and calling back, over and over. I don’t know what they’re telling each other, but they are telling us that another spring day is over, that it is time to settle into the evening, time for sleep. Lullabies from the trees.

Out in the woods, dogwood blossoms have peaked, and it is now time for the irises. And the trees are reveling in their new green clothes. Another marker that spring is full-on is the move to the sleeping porch. Just next to our yurt, the C.F. built a sleeping porch that is about 6 feet off the ground, screened in and roofed, where we sleep all summer. We basically only use the yurt to keep our belongings in the dry. We hardly need an alarm clock in the morning with all the raucous birds.

This is a precious time in Arkansas, just before the oppressively hot, humid weather comes. Granted, there is the risk of tornadoes this time of year, but even with that threat, it is glorious. You can practically breathe in the green. And we’ve begun the race to keep up with the lettuce crop, and soon all the other crops we’ve finally put in the ground. It is the season of green, and I’m taking in as much of it as I can before the season of wilting arrives in June.