"Planting Time"

Every time I've gone out recently I've seen another plot of land with the dirt turned and ready for planting.  What a sign of hope this is to me.  Each year people dig, and turn and prepare the earth for seeds and seedlings.  Each year there is the hope that the sun and the rain will bring forth yet another year of crops.  Can anything else be more hopeful?

This punchneedle design is a stylized vision of a local road winding past a turned field.  Notice the pale green trees/bushes in the foreground.  At this time of the year that is my own version of hope as our tree limbs are still bare of bud.  They will soon sprout their pale green leaves fulfilling spring's promise.

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all". - Emily Dickinson