A HINT OF SPRING

 

          Today was so amazingly spring-like. I loved, loved, loved it, and I didn’t stay inside but was outside. Of course, I began the day by attending my river exercise class. Boy, some days moving my body through that water with and against the current seems very difficult, but I persevere and feel so much better after.

          When I got home, I had lunch and then prepared all the vegetables for my stir-fry dinner. That finished, I put Kuma’s harness on and figured out a way to keep him in the front yard except for the two times he managed to shrug his way out of the harness. After the second time, I tightened the harness and Kuma was either tired from his explorations or he couldn’t shrug it off a third time.

          The first thing I did was to rearrange the wire flower cages to keep Kuma in his portion of the garden. I don’t know what I’ll do once everything starts to come up and the cages are needed to support the dahlias and lilies. I’ll have to give that some thought.

          That done, I moved to the front yard and into the sunshine. I managed to get all the Mexican wind grass cut down and a bunch of weeds pulled. What I don’t understand is where those weeds came from. I was very diligent last year about pulling up all those weeds with white flowers that turn into seeds that jump when touched. I just looked them up and it's called hairy bittercress weed. I’d swear very few of those seeds were able to proliferate, but you wouldn’t think that if you saw all the little green starts that are all over the place. I hate those things.

          The sun and breeze felt absolutely wonderful, and I ended up taking off my sweatshirt. I didn’t have my usual tank top beneath, so I wasn’t as bare as I usually am. I was grateful for the long-sleeved flannel shirt.

          Doing all this today and it getting close to Washington’s actual birthday of February 22^nd made me think of my old professor. He loved snow peas and every single year on Washington’s birthday, he planted. He dug up the soil, added compost and mixed it all together before carefully placing his seeds. I always enjoyed hearing him talk about his efforts, and the one time I saw his garden in Madison Park, I was extremely impressed.

          I won’t be planting snow peas on Washington’s birthday unless it’s another nice day like this. Even then, it probably won’t happen because I still have to clean and sterilize my planters as well as haul home bags of dirt. And I won’t do as the professor did, but simply put the seeds right into the dirt once the planter is filled. No extra prep on my part.

          Anyway it was a gorgeous day…send me more, please, please, please.