The unseasonably warm weather we’ve had since January has everything blooming early and seemingly at once. Apples, pears, quince, native trailing blackberries, salmonberries, lilacs, dogwood, buttercup, ajuga, native irises and strawberries…but the greatest of these are the maples, now at the peak of their bloom. My yard is heavy with the aroma of curing maple nectar, the hives humming loudly through the night in their efforts to evaporate the excess water. The honey is coming!