Notes from the Earth

There are times you just gotta love what's wet and sticky. It's so fertile. I like mud because it's the signature of the season. And nothing catches my eye in early-spring mud like some green shoots that lead to some edible roots--spring onions!--underground.  Bending down (oof!), I grab a fistful of green shoots at soil level, and yank (ooo....come on.....oof!) but I've got the motivation. An omelet awaits manifestation. Or a stir fry. The clayish mud gives the onions up with a sucking sound. It's really not time to pick them yet -- try March -- and it's easier to pick spring onions after the soil has dried until it's crumbly, but not so much that the shoots are woody and the bulbs dried out. I rushed the season, but who doesn't want to rush spring? Don't they look like sparklers? The white bulbs remind me somehow of musical notes, if you could gather them in the hand. BTW, the first crocus here was a yellow one, Feb. 17.