March 23, 2013 - Spring Is Here

Today I spent a good part of the day in town...and ended up regretting it.  Not for what I had done, but rather for what I didn't accomplish.  What I had done was to get to the REI garage sale (and not purchase anything), have coffee with a friend I hadn't seen in several months and get caught up, and visit with my friends and their almost three-year old grandchildren.  (Twins...quite adorable!)

 

What could have been better than that?  Well...now you'll know my addiction, if you don't already.  Time in the garden on a beautiful, sunny, non-windy day.  I did get almost four hours in when I returned home, but the list of chores to be done remains quite lengthy!  And being outside, listening to the birds, digging in the dirt, pulling out weeds, even rototilling, fills my soul as few other things do.

 

Yesterday I heard a flock of sandhill cranes fly overhead.  Today it was seagulls.  (I did prefer the cranes...we hear them twice a year, in spring and in fall, as they fly over on their annual migration.)  I finished planting Walla Walla sweet onions and my sugar snap peas today, and did some clean-up in the ornamentals near the vegetable boxes.  (I also retrieved all the rose canes blown out of the burning pile by the high winds we've had the past few days.)  The magnolia is on the cusp of blooming, the asparagus froze last night, and the deer have not nibbled any more on the tulips.  It's a garden - it's always a mixed bag - sometimes a blessing, sometimes a burden.  That's what the rest of life is like, too...I just occasionally forget to appreciate that it comes as a whole.  May God give me the patience with my life that I enjoy with my garden!