Ash Wednesday

Becoming acquainted with a property is an amazing business. Now, during Lent, crocuses are blooming, the little hen-and-chick plants are creeping between the dead leaves (as are our real hens: grrr!), chives are much longer than spring-green grasses, and the poor much-confused trees are trying to decide if it's safe to bloom, again . . .
I have been pruning trees, tilling soil, cleaning manure and dumping it on garden beds. the hens have wreaked havoc with my poor little rose-bush, so i will be putting up (still more!) chicken wire along the fence.
and is that not what Lent is? it is the time to set our lands in order, to work and fertilize and prune and trim so that we might bear fruitful harvest.
beware of the hens!!!