Amost Summer

Almost Summer!! The garlic in the garden is sprouting scapes and the pole beans have sprouted. The trees that lost their leaves in the fall are now completely filled in with lush green. The cherry trees are full of unripe fruit. In the forest, the buds on the conifers have exploded into brilliant new growth. Ferns that were beaten down by the snow and cold of winter are sporting new, leafy doos. Even the mattress of moss that covers the darkest parts of the forest floor has a new sheen, like a carpet that has just been shampooed. 

Blue grouse are working their bellows in the Douglas Firs. The other night, we saw our first newborn blacktail fawn stumbling behind it’s mom like a drunken toddler. Birds are chirping again and surf smelt are riding the waves up onto to the gravel beaches to spawn. I even spotted my first summer steelhead in a side channel of the river this week. 

Up on the ridge, the marmots are chirping while the snow fields shrink and the wildflowers prepare to explode. Our daylight has doubled since the winter solstice and it feeds the soul as much as it does fauna. It’s a complete rejuvenation. I feel it.