Walking up Valentine Road past Pleasant Ridge cemetery in the evening last week offered a great view of Venus to the northwest. Always the brightest planet, it is particularly distinct in the clear, blue black May sky.

Heading south around the curve, it is Jupiter, a bit yellower but almost as bright, hanging proudly in the southeastern sky. These wonderfully clear spring nights, what a gift they are for stargazing.

Is that what our farm neighbors are thinking as they slowly head west across their fields? Their tractors power the brightest lights of all.

Are farmers our most expert astronomers, whether enclosed in glass or riding open to the elements? They have time, they have the universe. Are their thoughts and imaginations drifting skyward?

Do they wonder, seeing a car on the ridge line, if that is some equally hard-working editor, keeping spring farmer’s hours, having planted seeds of his own, having kept his lines straight across the page, wondering if his efforts will bring a bountiful harvest or if his crop will come up thistles and weeds?

We work hard, we work differently, but each of us is staring straight ahead, intent on a good yield, hoping for bounty in our chosen fields.

Is the ground planted with words as fertile and receptive to the future as our Skagit Valley soils are to seeds?

Like the farmer, the editor is eternally optimistic and passionately committed to plowing, planting and sustaining his corner of the Skagit Valley.