some lilac blossoms

a few salmon colored hyacinths at the park and first lilac blossoms

with plants at the library

Today, earth day, I bought a dill and a spinach, which I must carry back on my bike - at the farmers market they say it is okay to put them outdoors in a container now.

Tacoma Reads Together grow local eat local

I want to enter one or two photos from Mother Earth Farm.

Draft Horse Plow

Today last Saturday's postponed Draft Horse Plow went ahead with spirit. Last Saturday the ground had too much muck, during the week it was clear, so although it rained yesterday and in the early morning, the condition of the ground today was good. Two teams of three horse, two teams of two horses, and one single hitch plowed. Two drivers walked and three drivers used riding plows. The single hitch horse was dapple gray with a braided white forelock.

At the Emergency Food Network's Mother Earth Farm was a camera person from TV Tacoma, Channel 22 and other people with cameras.

The morning was cool but nice, after the morning session a lot of the ground was plowed and everyone stopped to rest.

My bike ride back along the trail included another glimpse of a field of rhubarb - a local produce product, a reminder of the Tacoma Reads Together selection that relates to the Draft Horse Plow.

some rain

yellow daffodils red tulips

Draft Horse Plow postponed

Beyond the morning field haze veiled Mount Tahoma. The quiet industrial road ahead was closed, though, and in a yard a dog began to bark. There was no railroad crossing until I made my way back to the highway and rode blocks again to a major stoplight.

Along the highway across the railroad tracks a robin flew across the road, in water nearby frogs croaked very loud and close. Sheep stood in the corner of a pasture. And cars passed me. There was only a shoulder.

One more stretch of highway and I turned the bike to ride into a small road and to the Emergency Food Network sign at a shed. There I learned the Draft Horse Plow has been postponed until next Saturday because of the condition of the ground. Rain has the fields turned to muck and the horses need some stability.

"We could lose our Clydesdales, they would sink right in," the farmer said. She turned out to be Carrie Little, who is one of three top vote-getters in a national contest for a White House Farmer position.

Tacoma Reads Together featured a Draft Horse Plow among its events for the featured book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver.

Carrie Anne Little told me there was a trail I could take back and avoid all the highway without a sidewalk. The trail was marked on my map as a little dotted line. It was easy to find the trail, and on the way in I saw bikers riding there from a distance.