Happy Spring!

I’m not the early-rising-est person in the world. I was a real morning grump as a kid with no control over it and I learned to try to just avoid the rest of the household and take a shower until I felt human again.

So I don’t milk at the crack of dawn either. And in winter it can be especially difficult to get motivated to get up in a cold house to go out in the cold to milk. But at least it is warm milk and a warm cow and I always enjoy it once I get going.

So most of the winter I milked at about 7:30 and 7:30 or 8 and 8, something like that. And the night milking has been in the dark for a long time. Which is nice in itself, seeing the stars and the moon. The last really clear view I got of the moon while milking she was a narrow crescent upturned in the western sky not quite hiding behind the bare-naked trees.

Late last week I needed to milk a little earlier to be free for some other commitments. And so I milked at 7 at night . . . and I didn’t need a flashlight! It was still light!

As much as we anticipate spring, prepare, plant, everything we do in sync with the seasons – as much as all that, it was that light that actually told me, “Oh, equinox!” No more milking in the dark.

The dandelions are beginning to bloom here and there in the fields too.