Spring!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Today was one of those beautiful spring days, one of those beautiful first springs days when it felt like everything was going to burst open at any minute. It seemed that I looked at the hostas that had just broken through the ground a few days ago and when I looked two hours later today they already were a couple inches higher. It was one of those days when you just didn't want to come indoors but it got dark and quite a bit cooler and you know all good things come to an end. Now it is supposed to start raining in a couple of hours and rain for days and days and days.

I have gotten a lot of work done in the my postage-stamp-sized yard this week, feeling like I have a real head start. I pruned the heck out of my forsythias, hydrangeas and lilacs. I don't know if prune is the right word as I know this is definitely not the time of year to prune flowering shrubs as you will lose all the flowers. What I actually did was cut out probably half of all of their branches down to the ground. They all were way overdue and now they are much lighter and will get a lot more light down at their base and everything that is there will still bloom.

I also made my first visit to the nursery last week, the nursery being the most dangerous place for me to go to shop. I always, always bring home far more than I intend to buy and then have to find a place to dig and plant whatever I bought. The annuals aren't in yet and only the large shrubs are really for sale. Oh, there were lots and lots of pansies but that was about it. So I got my nine bags of mulch which will probably only be enough for most of the back yard and came home.

Today I started working in the front yard and that will be more mulch and dahlias added to the shopping list. I started digging up the coreopsis and splitting it up, putting some in the back yard.

I could go on and on but what I love about the garden is that it is a work in progress, a job that will never be finished so we are meant to enjoy the trip.

I got a surprise package this week and was thrilled to open it and find rhubarb plants. Whenever I go to my sister's home in Michigan, Karen fixes rhubarb sauce for me. It is the only time and place I ever eat it. I did some rhubarb stalks in a grocery store here for a very brief time last year and it was very costly. We grew up eating rhubarb from our yard and my Aunt Eileen made the best rhubarb pie. But then she made the best blueberry pie also. I think it didn't matter what the fruit was because it was always the best because there was about an inch of pure sugar in the bottom of the pie.

Chives and parsley and oregano and garlic and hens and chicks are also ready to go into the ground as soon as the monsoon is over next week.

All of this means that the knitting and crocheting has slowed down. I actually have three things going on at the same time which I hardly ever do. The life sweater has ground to a screeching halt while I work on the baby blanket which is coming along nicely. In the meantime I have started a "community project". I have been making squares, actually rectangles, with leftover yarn for a while that will eventually be put together into an afghan and donated somewhere. Now I have a "community" project laying on the table for anyone to pick up and work on when they feel like doing something with their hands for a few minutes. Liz has become quite the crocheter so these should get done faster than they have been.

"Pardonable Lies" by Jacqueline Winspear takes place in London and France in 1930 and I am finding it pretty enjoyable. It is the book chosen for our book chat group this time around.

At the same time I am reading "Second Glance" by Jodi Picoult. Jodi always takes her readers into a controversial area, making them think a little more, wonder a little more, always raising issues with two or more sides to them. This one is about paranormal activity, the presence of those who have passed away and are caught in our arena, not quite having crossed all the way over to the next life as of yet. At least that is the impression I have of the book although I have only just started it. It is something that I have thought about often and don't really know the answer to or what I really think. I often feel that someone is "around" although we have buried them. But then on the other hand I get incredibly sad when I think that Nick's father isn't going to be at his wedding. Like I said, I don't understand it all nor do I know what I believe either.