Greetings fellow readers,
This report comes to you fresh from the eyes and ears of the errant beekeeper. I'd like to report all four colonies flew today, suggesting they remain alive and well, thanks to our mild winter and early spring. The bees housed in red stung me in surprise at my intrusion to their vigorous winter slumber, but I've given them more room to live in, so hopefully they will be happy.

Italian honeybee pollinating a camellia.

Signs of spring and bees co-occur delightfully. I'm delighted to report I've spotted honeybees feasting on hazelnut catkins, bok choy flowers, and camellia flowers.

Hazelnut catkins, early spring (honeybee not pictured).

A robin enjoys the newly-green pasture.

We moved to the farm in autumn 2011. One of our first orders of business was clearing land, putting up fences, and watching in dismay as the horses gradually churned the pasture to thick mud. We promised that this year it would be different — and it was. We put in a winter enclosure with pea gravel and left the pasture alone to recover. To help it on its way, we re-seeded in early November with a pasture mix of oats, clover, grass and vetch.

Mushrooms grow from horse manure in the pasture.

The pasture mix — along with some of the remaining grass — has sprouted and has restored the pasture to a lush, beautiful green. Areas where horse manure was spread are particularly verdant and have sprouted mushrooms amidst the greenery.

Grass sprouted all across the pasture.

Seeds in soil blocks.

We've been starting thousands of seeds — first pressing out cubes of soil with a soil blocker, then warming them in our plastic-sheathed low tunnel in preparation for a market garden. In the next few days, we'll learn whether we'll be selling flowers and vegetables from our market garden at the Bainbridge Island Farmers' Market. While we wait for the news, we've found it wonderful seeing the new life springing forth from its humble beginnings in the soil mix.

Arugula sprouts in soil blocks.