Slice of Life: Wild Chives

Slice of Life 2011“Ahh. The first chives of spring.”

I was tossing the baseball around with my middle son, who is breaking in a new glove. The younger son was chasing the dog around the yard with a large stick in his hand, yelling out some sort of battle cry. The older son had bent down to pluck something off the ground. He popped it into his mouth and chewed slowly.

The chives are back.

Each spring and into early summer, our yard becomes a wild landscape of wild chives. When that first day of mowing the lawn arrives, the air will be sweet with chives. It’s enough to sometimes make you gag. A little bit of chives goes a long way. A lot of chives goes too far. The kids love to munch on the pungent weeds. I worry about what the dog has been doing, if you get my drift.

My son reached down to pluck another tender green shoot. The dog lumbered over and he fed the chive to the dog. Now, both of them were chewing, rather thoughtfully. The temperature here in Western Massachusetts is still hovering around the mid-30 degree mark, so spring is taking its time.

The chives tell us that we won’t have much longer to wait. I can smell it in the air.

Peace (in spring, please, come),

Kevin

7 Comments
  1. Kevin,
    I like the focus on the chives as symbolic of spring’s return. They do have a pungent aroma, but I actually like it.
    There are worse smell that mowing can throw up…

  2. I liked the way you described a good scene with the boys, just playing around outside, despite the chill. Then moved into the real story, spring is coming! My little grouping of chives is up, too, but not wild ones in the yard. Nice that you’ve found one sign of spring, although it seems to give you mixed feelings.

  3. I live in the country and the first thing up in the dog yard is the wild chives! My 2 year old dog that I adore was picky with her food tonight and vomited a red mucous ! I think they were playing with oranges in the yard and those are Ok for dogs but am hoping she did not get too many chives as they are very bad in a quantity for dogs! Any ideas! I am taking her to her vet in the AM as he is very good with the dogs and will see them on Sundays even in an emergency!

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