Spring Clouds

       

    Spring in the Willamette Valley is cool and misty, kind of peaceful. It’s good. Plants sprout and grow, students and teachers stay focused, night noise is at a minimum until June, when most of the college kids go elsewhere for the summer. The trails have dried out enough to walk on, but they are not summer dusty. Gardeners have time to set up the irrigation system and mulch it in before it is really needed, at least in theory.   A person can spend the afternoon staring into space and not feel guilty about it—after all, starting an outside project, like repainting the yellow curb marker, will clearly bring on a downpour. Better to think about it for a little longer and keep the grass dry.

            This year has been a little weird. The rains stopped about three weeks ago and the sun came out. At first, we were all thrilled. Warmth! Sun! Tan! Warmth! Light! But then, reality set in. The pile of papers on my desk grew deeper, day after day, when I left school to watch the bees, rather than staying in to grade.  Kids started the “can we go out?!” chorus in early May, which is never a good thing, then they shut their brains off. I poked my fingers into the soil, and it was dry. I’ve been watering some plants. The blooms fell off of the apple tree before the fruit was fully pollinated, I am afraid. It feels, wrong, somehow, to have sun for a week straight in early May.

            The weather shifted back to normal this weekend. It’s been cloudy, with downpours and drizzles, for several days. The light is muted and slow. I need an extra layer, a sweater or an ancient flannel shirt, when I sit down to read, barefoot. The grass is damp. The cool weather crops are thriving. A dove calls over the neighborhood in the morning while we drink a second cup of tea, contemplate the world, and drowse.

Rhubarb and Blackberry Pie

 This is a one crust and crisp topping pie….

6-7 stalks of rhubarb

1.5 c of blackberries from the far back of the freezer

.75 c of sugar, usually white

a pinch of cinnamon

Toss together, and put in the pie crust

Topping:

1 c oatmeal

.5 c flour

.75 c of sugar, usually brown

.33 c of butter or margrine or both together

Squish together with your fingers and pack lightly on the top of the fruit

Bake at 350 until bubbly, about 45 minutes.

Eat with vanilla ice cream.