Signs of Spring

I had my first tulip blossom yesterday. I came home from work a lovely peach colored bloom stood all by itself in my triangular flower bed near my front door. I love weeks like this when the weather is good and warm and the flowers respond.

May there be many more to come.

Vitamin Deficiency

Yesterday was the "hottest day of the year" so far.  It was 72° when I drove home from work.  The windows were rolled down and the sky was blue.  It was lovely.

When I got home, The Boy was the golf course, of course.  So i knew that I had a few hours to fend for myself.  I rolled up my pant legs, and shirt sleeves and put on my headphones on and went out to the front porch to sit in the sunshine while listening to my iPod.  It felt so good.

I'm not sure how long I sat there.  I was on the verge of falling asleep, sitting up, leaning into the door jamb when my neighbors across the cul-de-sac yelled over to me, teasing me not to get sun burned on the first day out in the spring sun.  Oh, I wish.

I came inside when I realized that I was nearly falling asleep, and laid down for a moment on the front room couch.  Forty minutes later, and with BAD couch hair, I woke up.  I never nap in the afternoon.  How long was I outside in the sun?!  The warmth sucked all the energy out of me.  But the little nap revived me for making dinner and getting ready to do it all over again.

Sadly, the sunshine was a one-say-only-show.  We are back to rain and even snow today.  But the 72° day is simply a promise of springtime weather yet to come.  I just wish it would transition already.  I'm anxious to feel the sun on my face and add some color to me arms and legs.

Spring Break Means Spring Cleaning

This week is the kids' Spring Break...well, mostly.  The Girl still has her 7 AM college class M-W-F so she can't sleep her life away after all.  But since she was up and at 'em today, I gave the kids both a series of chores that they needed to do before any funny-business.  If even fun, of any kind. 

I'm such a meanie!!

But already this morning, they have got their laundry done, their rooms "deep cleaned" (this definition varies from one room to the other...and from one cleaner, usually The Boy,  to the other, but I am satisfied after looking under beds and in closets he did just fine for now) and the pile of rotten dead leaves swept up, bagged and trashed from off the back patio.  They even power washed the grossest corner where the most leaves gathered. 

Ahh.  Spring cleaning.  I love it!

I still have the outside of the windows on the docket this week, but will need Genius Golfer to do the ladder work for me on that one.

Making Change For Myself

As I am desperate today for better weather, I thought I'd share with you some of the photos I took last week on a visit to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. The bloom meter was only at 65% the day I was there, but the cycle of blooms was already underway. These master gardeners know which varieties to plant so they bloom in waves for several weeks each spring. As the first begin to fade and die the next wave is already blooming with another set waiting in bud form for their turn.


The variations in the tulips is amazing.


Just look at the blanket of blooms here. Lovely.


I love the light coming through the petals of the flowers in this shot.


I just love the shape of this tulip and its leaves.

Maybe if you close your eyes and concentrate of the images of these spring flowers, you might feel a little more springtime in your day today. Otherwise, let's just endure the weekend and hope the sunshine comes back next week.

Here Comes the Sun

The neighbors are taking their camping trailer out for the weekend. The tulips are starting to push buds up. The grass could use an initial cutting. And I am off to spray weeds. YES! I think SPRING has finally arrived.

Always A Promise

I had the chance this week to do some meditation and I focused primarily on the creation, the beauties that surround us. Now this week, I have had to look long and hard for things that make me feel happy or inspired in nature, since the sunshine has been playing tricks on me--coming out only to hide away for a few days again. I know I am ready for spring, and that thought led me to ponder the beauties of the earth.

I have tulip leaves poking out of the dirt in my front yard flower bed. I have columbine leaves mounding up and preparing for their blooms later in the season. The Girl planted a bag of seeds on the back raised bed where I can see it from the kitchen window that was marked "butterfly garden". She is hopeful that there will be many flowers with butterflies all summer long to look at while she or her brother does the dishes at the sink.

Even the lawn is slowly turning an under layer green while the thatchy yellowed winter grass is slowly shedding away. Everything is getting for Spring to really take hold.

I guess that is really beauty of the seasons. Even one a long, isolating, discouraging and cold as this winter was for me there is that ever present promise of spring. And some days--especially lately--the promise is all I have. But I'll take that and look forward to the day when the sun will shine brightly and the flowers will be in bloom and the grass will be warm and green and soft. I will soak it all in and enjoy each day because I know that in six or eight months, the wintry hibernation will begin again.

10 O'Clock and All Is Well

It is St. Patrick's Day today, and I was a little late off the start. I picked up 21 "gold" coins--really they are chocolate--yesterday at the grocery store and had planned to leave them all in GG's computer bag and over the kids' beds during the night so they woke up to leprechaun gold this morning. But it all went south last night about 8 PM when the kids were discovered to have lied to me (The Girl) and not done their after dinner chores but played outside instead (The Boy). I was so frustrated I grounded them. So, no leprechaun visits last night.

But this morning, there was no computer or TV--per the grounding regulation they both got last night. That was good. They got off to school with only a reminder to brush their teeth prior to the carpool leaving. So far so good.

Then I got on the phone with our dental insurance because I received notification that they didn't cover our February visit for regular cleaning and Xrays because we weren't within our coverage period. That coverage started in January, so they had some explaining to do. Instead I discovered that the dentist's office had our old group number still for three of the four of us, amd consequently I didn't have to wait for 45 minutes for the next available customer service operator to take my call in the order in which it was received. Easy fix with the office and claims will be resubmitted.

I headed out for a walk in the sunshine and my iPod was stacked with 80s tunes. I feel better after the 45-60 minutes I can walk and absorb the sun.

Now I am done exercising, done fixing insurance trouble, and done getting kids to school. The day is nearly mine and beyond a drop in visit at Costco, I have very few things that HAVE to be done. With the sun shining, what more can I ask?

Clean Up Weathered Out

I had big plans to clean up the front yard today. I even began the morning at the hardware store buying a yard rake. I got the front portion of one flower bed partially cleaned of the wintered bits of old dead flower stems and leaves when the snow began.



The weather man is promising 60 degrees next week. I hope he is right. I have a lot of clean up to do. Here's hoping for spring, sooner than later.

BLAST!

I woke up to a winter wonderland, again. Six inches, they say we got through the night and most of the morning. If I get my hands on that wretched little groundhog, I am going to give him more than a piece of my mind--it'll be a boot to the head!

When is the official first day of spring?! Whenever it is, it isn't soon enough.

Something in the Air

Genius Golfer has removed most the Christmas lights and trees from the yard. Not all, but most.

In my recent outing to admire the revealed, winter-seasoned dead grass, I noticed in my flower bed the sprouting of tulip leaves, and some allium leaves have also popped up. Spring is in the air.

My attitude is lifting as well, as it is bound to do as the sun appears. I would make a really satisfied snow-bird old lady. Give me a warm day with bright sunshine pouring down and I am pretty happy person.

Yet, my natural cynicism reminds me not to wash the car yet as that is a sure way to put the kibosh on my springtime plans and bring back the snow. *shudder* Not that.

Welcome Spring!

Did you get up at 5:44 this morning to welcome spring?! Yeah, me neither. But I am sure happy that the curse of that blasted Groundhog is past now. Spring is sprung! Bring on the heat!

The promise of warm days, filled with sunlight, and yards coming back to life! that is best part of spring. I love to leave the hoodie in the closet in the mornings and be perfectly comfortable all day. I love to see the tulips pop up into my flower bed after sleeping int he dirt all winter long. I especially love to see my neighbors again who, like the tulips, have hibernated the winter away inside their homes. There is a camaraderie as we all weed the flowers, prep the lawns, mow the grass, sweep the driveways and take down the last of the Christmas lights safely.

Makes me feel better already. But that probably only means that Monday we'll see snow again. Drat. That is how ironic nature seems to be sometimes. I'll still take the near 70 degree day we are expecting today.