Another typical North Country “Spring” day

It’s only ten days until Memorial Day and the high temperature today might reach 61. It’s my fault, I’m afraid. Earlier this week I packed away my winter weight pjs and jerseys and dug out summer t-shirts. Meanwhile, yesterday and today I’ve been comfortable in the house wearing a winter weight chamois shirt.

Tomorrow is pick up day for this week’s community supported agriculture share. This time we’re getting a box with:

Green Incise Lettuce Tango lettuce Arugula Spinach Komatsuna Greens

KOMATSUNA: a mild turnip grown almost exclusively in Japan, Taiwan and Korea, prior to its arrival in the U.S. It can be harvested at any stage to be used in salads, as braising greens, boiled or pickled. The flavor grows stronger as the plants mature.  An excellent addition to your next stir fry! Click here to learn more about komatsuna

I expect that, as usual, the Better Half [BH] will manage to do something healthy, creative and tasty with the vegetables. I’m eating more salads than I prefer, but that’s partly due to my limited preference (singular) in salad dressing. Maybe I need to try something other than caesar. After all, I don’t continue to reread the same book or replay the same song. [Don’t mention it out loud, but BH has actually done a couple of things with spinach that I almost liked.]

This weekend I plan to check out a one or two of my fly rods as a reward for getting some outside chores done. If my plan works, one day the branches on the ground will be picked up from two sections of the back yard and those two sections may get mowed with the push mower, all assuming the weather is cooperative. In that mix, I want to make sure to stretch a fly line or more to get the kinks out of lines that overwintered in tight coils on the reels. It will be interesting to see what Mother Nature and the Red Gods have to say about my plans. Remember, "The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men / Gang aft agley, ...” In fact, that’s worth sharing in its entirety.

To a Mouse

By Robert Burns

On Turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785.

Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,

O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

          Wi’ bickerin brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee

          Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion

Has broken Nature’s social union,

An’ justifies that ill opinion,

          Which makes thee startle,

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

          An’ fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen-icker in a thrave

          ’S a sma’ request:

I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,

          An’ never miss ’t!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!

It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!

An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,

          O’ foggage green!

An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin,

          Baith snell an’ keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,

An’ weary Winter comin fast,

An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,

          Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter past

          Out thro’ thy cell.

That wee-bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble

Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!

Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,

          But house or hald,

To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble,

          An’ cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

          Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

          For promis’d joy!

Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But Och! I backward cast my e’e,

          On prospects drear!

An’ forward tho’ I canna see,

          I guess an’ fear!

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