Hay-trie Acres: Prose and Prints

Even though we find ourselves buried in the depths of winter, we recently embarked on a ‘spring cleaning’ adventure. Dreams of Spring in action, I suppose.

As we sorted out pile after pile pulled from closets and hutches both treasures and trash were found. One ‘treasure’ was an old notebook from back when we lived in Waterville, still new to our relationship and dreaming of our future, just starting on our house hunting journey. We dreamed up a list of ‘must haves’, ‘really wants’, and ‘would be so amazing to haves’. One of the latter was a weeping willow tree. Well, we found a house with just that, and honestly it was a big factor in choosing where we are now.

A couple of years ago we had to remove the tree to save our well lines, leaving a stump in it’s place that our local bunnies have found their home behind and we planted bee and butterfly bloom and bushes and herbs around; sometimes the right decision is anything but ideal. Although we created a fun new garden around the stump and gave many local bugs homes (as well birds, much to the bug’s chagrin), we found ourselves missing our old wonderful willow.

Last spring we again had to have some yard cleared to ensure happy habitats would continue to flourish. We discovered a row of willows way down back – a number of saplings budding beautifully amongst the tall native grasses and wildflowers. A foot path was made around these groves of willows and birch and poplar saplings down back, carefully weaved to wander wistfully without disturbing our wildlife friends.