Picture from Fairdale

On April 9, a tornado tore through Fairdale, IL, 25 miles straight south of where we were. A few days later, Terry read in the paper about a person in Harvard finding a wedding picture from Fairdale. Last Wednesday, Terry found a torn and muddy photograph on our land. We don’t know for sure that it came from Fairdale, of course. It is not unreasonable to think that it came from the inside of a house, which is where photographs are generally kept, although I suppose it could have come from a garbage can or landfill.

Picture Terry found on Wednesday

I saw there was writing on the back. I wiped the mud away with a damp paper towel. My first thought was that it said “illy Stone 98.”  Billy Stone, perhaps? I looked at the picture again. A young boy in a tank top holding his shoes in the dark. A camping trip. The writing on the back wasn’t a name; it was a place. Jelly Stone. No doubt a reference to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts. That boy would be a man now.

Writing on the back

Hilda decided she needed a shed by the garden so we would not have to constantly be walking up and down the hill schlepping tools and running after things we had forgotten. It was delivered Thursday. The most fascinating part of the whole thing was a remote-controlled trailer. The delivery man was able to pivot the shed with a hand-held unit that moved the end of the trailer to hoist one corner of the shed and move it sideways. It is hard to describe, so I took a video. Terry kept walking in front of me in his usual oblivious way.

The whole rig

Unloading the shed

In other news, the garlic is up. Hilda kept meaning to get down to check its progress. One day she realized that it had gotten big enough that she could see it from the house.

The garlic bed

The asparagus is starting to sprout. So are the thistles in the asparagus bed. We’ve had some cold nights since Wednesday. Most of the asparagus froze, but the thistles are doing fine. It’s a good thing classes will be ending soon, as I can start working outside as soon as I can find time.

Asparagus sprouts

Finally, the trees are flowering everywhere. Most people don’t seem to appreciate the sexual nature of trees because they fail to closely inspect the trees right after the buds open. That subtle pale green of the willows and the red of the box elders aren’t all leaves. In fact, it’s mostly flowers. Because these trees are wind-pollinated, the flowers aren’t showy like the apple trees. Still, these flowers get the job done. A new generation is forming right before our eyes. Spring has come.

Willow flowers