Down at the creek today, the pink Big Leaf maple buds have opened to show tree flowers. They are the engine of spring. They feed the insects who feed the birds’ song, and then the young. I read somewhere that baby birds require a diet of 90% protein, of those insects that are feed by tree flowers…
But before that, if you are ravenous, you gather the eggs and you eat them.
Here’s the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “Ravenous”
(a) Originally: (of an animal) given to seizing other animals as prey; predatory; ferocious. Later: (of an animal or person; also of the appetite, hunger, etc.) voracious, gluttonous.
I am regaining my fierceness and my appetite. Like a raven. I love ravens. I have a raven feather on this desk, in the same glass jar that holds my Pilot Precise v5 pens.
So tonight, in a red in tooth and claw kind of a way, I made a dinner of the traditional foods of spring; eggs and greens and cheeses. I poached two eggs, added mint and chives and parsley from my own garden, plus some good Beecher's cheese.
These are the foods that are made when young life is burgeoning. I ate new life.