Welcome back and thanks!

Spring is springing! We can feel it, and if you drive past Yakima Fruit Market, you can see it too. We're getting ready for our Grand Opening on Wednesday, March 7 (6 a.m. to 8 p.m.) when we'll be serving you cake and coffee all day, and sampling juicy pink grapefruit and introducing you to some new Washington apple varieties.

Till then, we have lots of cleaning and setting up to do, lots of planning and ordering, and we especially want to give a big shout-out to our alumna Darby for the time she spent developing this blog. Darby has a full time job, is a mom, and managed to pull down a 4.0 g.p.a. as she's been working toward her degree. We decided to cut her some slack and take over the blog.

Thank you, Darby, for bringing the market to life in this blog, and thank you friends, for welcoming us back into your reading list!

If you've been driving by the market and seen our reader board with the "On This Day" message which we change up twice a week, I thought you might like to read the entire piece of prose. It's been an inspiration to me for over 30 years, and was passed on to me by a friend, Rev. Michael Schmitt. Author unknown.

ON THIS DAY

Mend a quarrel. Search out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust.

Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your

loyalty in a word or deed.

Keep a promise. Find the time. Forego a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand. Flout envy. Examine your demands on others. Think first of

someone else. Appreciate, be kind, be gentle. Laugh a little more.

Deserve confidence. Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency. Express your gratitude.

Worship your god. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still again. Speak it still once again.

Celebrating the seasons with you! ---Karin