Is it spring yet?

  Working in the yard every day allows me to see things that might otherwise go unnoticed.  Today, the peach trees caught my attention.  I was transplanting Boysenberry vines into some ground I just cleared in hopes to create another producing row.  This will be the fourth row of the berries and should supply everybody in the family with jelly, cobblers and pies.  As I dug one large clump of vines, a bit of pink made me turn toward the north.  Ahhh, the peach trees were doing their thing!  Pink blooms filled the orchard!  Well, at least half of the trees were blooming.  The other half still looked dormant.  Still, if these trees bear and nothing raids the orchard, we should have plenty.  I stopped my happy thoughts and pondered.  The inevitable downer was to occur tonight.  A freeze is predicted to slam us once again.

  I understand that our "light" freeze is nothing compared to the rest of the nation's deep freeze conditions but here it is bad news.  We have had just enough warm, spring-like weather to make things bud and now the possible frigid weather might throw a kink in the formation of fruit.  Perhaps the other half of the orchard is a bit smarter than the back half where the trees are in full bloom.  Perhaps we planted a different type of peach tree in the front of the orchard and perhaps we should try to remember just what type we did.  If all the trees were "late bloomers", we would not have to worry about the "Easter Freeze" that earned Mom's well-deserved warning.  She would tell Pop that he was planting too early.  That "Easter Freeze" would damage his seedlings.  Usually, she was right and come late afternoon before the predicted cold weather, Pop would decide to cover his plants.  This meant that all of us would be out placing flowerpots, buckets, newspapers and anything else handy over the several hundred tomato plants and pepper plants.  Sometimes this was a futile effort.  If the temperatures dipped too low, the tiny plants would freeze anyway and our trouble was for naught.  

   My planting has been delayed this year since cleaning has taken up my time.  Maybe this is a good thing!  My instincts tell me that this is not the last cold spell of the season.  We have more winter in store for us.  This bit of warmer temperatures was just a taunt, a test of our patience, so to speak.  I will continue to clear the gardens and transplant berry vines.  Those do not seem to be harmed by a bit of chill!  Good things come to those who wait and, in my case, patience is the key.  Winter just won't leave!