Life in A Dust Bowl, Spring, Paisley News and Stuff

Well, maybe not quite a dust bowl but after one of the wettest winters in recent memory we have had about a month or so of really dry weather and it seems like everything has turned to dust. I think most of the folks (all around me) who are lambing are rejoicing at the warm, mild weather - it really does make the lambing go easier and I reckon the survival rate must be significantly higher. But jeez, every time you move a foot a cloud of dust rises up and swirls around your head. It helps that the farm where I stay is near a big quarry, limestone and such...but well, I guess what I'm trying to say is...city folks just don't really live by the weather the same way farming folks do.

Now all this talk about dust has me thirsty. A few weeks ago the creeks and rivers around here were rising and turning the fields around them into pools....now some of the streams have gone dry. In April! Farmers are going about their work planting spuds and lupins and so forth, probably glad they're not bogging down in the mud, yet those seeds and crops can use some rain. So me, I'm hoping for some rain. A good rainy day or two would be real, real nice...put things right.

Today I had to cross the border into England and travel to a city some 30 miles distant...it was a lovely day for a drive. Put me in mind of my first spring here, 2002, when I took the double-decker bus from a nearby village to that same city and what joy I felt from my vantage point in the front window of the 2nd floor of the bus as I easily saw over the hedgerows and into every field, the giant tractors and ploughs, the power harrows working down the ground, the fields of ewes and racing lambs, the large swaths of oilseed rape in flower, flourescent yellow in the lateday sun.

Doesn't everything seem wonderful this time of year as the hedgerows bloom and the animals thrive on lush grass and kick up their heels as they run, as children race around enjoying a break from lessons and the flowering pears and apple trees put on their flowery finest. It is pure joy to be alive. The daffodils have finally peaked and are beginning to wither and make way for flowers of a different color...in my garden that would be the bluebells and hopefully the lilacs will bloom before I must (reluctantly) fly back across the pond. Still I have spring in the Catskill Mountains to look forward to, and seeing all those friends I've missed these winter months.

Danny Paisley and the boys have been in the studio at long last and are working on a new release for Rounder Records; that from the horse's mouth, mind. It'll be good to see old friends in America and get around to some of the festivals once again.

I'm drifting and the doctor says I should go to bed - and rise again - early. So I'll sign off for now and try to make an early start tomorrow. Remember to take the time to revel in the springtime.