Bunnies, Inner Peace, and Murder

          Spring must even come to Florida, the land of perpetual summer. 

Suburbia Transformed

        

  Yesterday you couldn’t be blamed for thinking we lived in the breadbasket of America, instead of a small bedroom community with only one small farm left.

          Saturday was Plow Day, when teams from all over come to dig up the community garden for the beginning of the season.

 

It’s a chance for people to show off their horses’ plowing skills as they steer them from one side of the big fields to the other. Kind of like a farming version of a gathering of geeks. Instead of boasting about megabytes and apps, they gather in their overalls to compare technique and tack. 

          We were admiring the way one team cut through the hard earth, and the driver leaned down to call out, “This plow sat out in my field for ten years. Took it in, cleaned it up, and now I leave everyone sick at competitions. Best plow I ever had!”

April Showers

      In that old rhyme about April and 

the resulting May flowers, I don't think 

they had today's kind of showers in

mind.

Spring Rite

        

         My husband’s talking to himself again. I’m trying to give him a wide berth, not because his eyes are spiraling in odd directions – although that’s still a possibility – but because it’s tax season.

Spring Awakenings

Anyone with any sense will be outside today.

What a tease

          Yesterday’s temperature was cruising at a giddy 60 degrees, so we extracted ourselves from our recliners and laced up our walkin’ shoes.

Sneaky Spring

          We’re afraid to say it too loudly around here in case the other shoe drops and a snowstorm originally headed for Saskatchewan takes a right and decides it would be fun to visit Massachusetts, but, shh! spring might actually be here.

Ta Da!

     Yesterday’s weather was flawless – sunny, 72 degrees – so what better way to spend it than shoveling off the porch.

Take Me Out

Yesterday we ventured into enemy territory. Fortunately, we had reinforcements, some in civilian garb, the better to infiltrate our opponents’ ranks, others in full uniform.

First Signs

          Spring is certainly taking its time around here. My husband reminded me yesterday that our neighbor Meghan will probably be having her annual Easter egg hunt this weekend.

Clean Slate

Outside of cute kitchen message boards and restaurants with the evening specials, few people use slates anymore. You know, the fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock (that was the definition that sprang into your mind, right?)  Laura Ingalls Wilder would clasp as she sat in that one-room schoolhouse on the prairie. 

When I was teaching, and had time at the end of the day, I’d head to the girls’ room down the hall with my green plastic bucket. I’d fill it up and return to my classroom where I’d dip my giant sponge and wash away the day from my chalkboard. I might re-enter the detention list or a homework assignment, but the most part, it was a fresh start.

Maybe I liked the idea of a fresh start because it’s a close relative to my need for visual order. I could never understand those people whose filing system is composed of towers of paper.  Before I begin a task requiring any sort of thinking, I have to clear my desk of the notepads, old mail, and gloves looking for a mate. When I’m cooking, to avoid using chili powder instead of cinnamon, or baking powder instead of baking soda, I have to empty the kitchen counter and sink before I begin. 

An uncluttered surface can recharge my mind and soul. I can dodge real housecleaning far longer than I’d like to admit, but after I’ve sorted out a drawer or cleared the shoes from my closet floor I can reach inner peace. New shelf paper can leave me with a sense of tranquility that’ll stick around for the rest of the day.

These are all re-sets, new beginnings, another reason I enjoyed teaching.  In September I was able to start over again with a new set of students and the optimism that came with a new year.

  Funny, people write about the rebirth brought each year by Spring, but this is reversed in the teaching world. Spring is the culmination of the school year, when everything finishes up. 

Safe and Secure

      So the temps today reached into the 50s, and after the February we've had this was an event as miraculous and unexpected as me someday waking up 20 pounds lighter (never gonna happen). I actually rode around with my car window open and unzipped my jacket to an inch below my chin! 

Springing Forward

I’m not usually one of those people who grouse about this age of technology. You know, whenever there’s an error in the tickets they ordered, or a delay in their rental car, they harrumph about “those computers.”

          Not me – not this morning, anyway.

The Great Reveal

Spring is hovering. Or maybe it’s looming.

Digging in the Dirt

Who over the age of three 
knew dirt could be so much fun?

Springtime for Satchel

I think most of us will agree it's been a long winter. 
Maybe longer for some. 

Spring in My World

Everyone experiences Spring differently depending on where they live. Here in Western Massachusetts the seasons are, as usual, being obstinate.

Borrowed Spring

      This weekend my friends and I decided to leave the well-aged snow in our yards behind and go to the Boston Flower Show for an injection of spring. The smell of fresh things blooming when we walked through the doors was promising, but once we started down an aisle, the next thing we knew, it was time to shop!

Squirrel Hunger Games

       In spite of what has seemed like an endless schedule of snow this year, it’s been pretty busy here with the comings and goings of visitors. From past sightings, we know we have deer, wild turkey, fox, and coyote, some of them more welcome than others.

Spring Booster Shot

I'm not sure what it looks like out of your window today, I swear it looks like snow here. An impossibility at forty-five degrees, but I'm still checking the sky from time to time.  It's been gray and raw both in and out. I even hunted down the big red switch to see if the heating system was actually on.

So, if like me, you're getting a little twitchy waiting to sit outdoors, jacket-less, the sun on your face, here's a little something to keep you going. 

These are from my trip a few weeks ago to the Mt. Holyoke College bulb show.