A soggy week.  In an invigorating side step to progress.  Rainy days are cathartic; they break the routine, give pause, prepare us for renewal.  A few stoic “wild” dogwoods peek from the tree line by the old Bailey quarry.  While once prolific, the numbers have decreased in the last twenty years.  Jacque, Adrianne, Brooke and Bill’s mom count them as favorites…for their bloom orders a sense of reassurance in the seasons of life.   

Upon Brooke and Ben’s departure from Arizona and trek to Ohio they posted “Change is good” – a positive challenge to an entrenched older generation.  Bill’s Dad once lamented that people don’t change (he might qualify that today).  Donald Trump declared last week that the future belongs to the dreamers.  Depending on your opinion of our new president, that can be interpreted as illusionary or reactionary or encouraging or confusing, regardless it implies change. 

All of us and all of you know it is a constant, but how we cope with the feeling that our precious attention and exhausting behaviors is being blown downwind like this weeks apple blossoms is the hurdle.  Hope, anticipation and kids are salves for this affliction.  Kids are the best. 

Arra (1-1/2 years), Adrianne and Tom’s daughter can indeed, eat soup with fingers and giggles.  Payton (6) can scoot across a ball field (and a keyboard) as nimbly as her mom can negotiate three urchins and an overworked husband.  Henry (4) asserted himself during an afternoon read with Gigi.  A hallway noise made him bellow “show yourself!”  That protective urge will endure?  Baby Beatrice (6 mo.) softens us with her quiet smile.  Despite being born deaf seldom has a child seemed more content and eager.

How do we interpret the past, check the moment and investigate the future and at the same time give credit to everyone’s ability to adapt?  We just do it with the whole spectrum of emotion.  One truth in the confusion of the demands of time, money, and especially relationships is a May morning.  The first step outside unlocks magic.  There exists a brief inner feeling of order and rightness.  It may or may not endure.

Our family is in flux.  Adrianne and Arra have returned to Ohio and Tom from Toronto every other weekend.  Their plans to relocate to Michigan are alive, but Adrianne’s passion to grow cut flowers in Berlin Township has been fueled.

Brooke and Ben and kids have assumed so much of the farm’s demands and expectations that their time is always squeezed.  Jacque negotiates the parade of family activities and friendships and Bill naps in the tractor and relishes the kid spurts.

It has been proclaimed that “In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are only consequences.”  That thought can be argued for this year we have a promising crop of peaches for the first time in four seasons.  We are energized to renew our friendship with you.  Here’s the plan:

June 15                    First Cherries

July 15-20                First Peaches (cling stone); apricots lost to frost

July 10                      First apples (Lodi)

August 5                   Zestar apples

August 10-20            Red Haven peaches

August 25-30            First white peaches and nectarines

August 26                  Ice Cream Social

September 2-30         Plums

Sept. 10 – Nov. 25     Pears

September 1               First cider

September 5-10          First Gala and Honeycrisp PICK YOUR OWN

October 7-8                Antique Tractor Show

October 15                 Apple Peak Fall Gathering

October 15-20            Cameo & Fuji, Pumpkins

Oct. 30 – Nov. 25       Pink Lady & Goldrush