Spring Fever and a Mud Monster

About March when you first start noticing the warmer days, maybe some spring crocus or daffodils have emerged, this is when it first strikes.  You want to get outside, wash your outdoor furniture off, fire up the grill and get things tidied up in the yard... and that's when...the yellow pollen comes and takes over the world for about 2 weeks!  You are stuck back inside again - battling between opening the windows to the beautiful weather and keeping them sealed up tight against the yellow invader.  Either way, you are doomed.  This year, to top it off... you have an over abundance of green inch worms and their silky threads that are taking over every tree, doorway and mailbox in the neighborhood!

The kids and even pets get antsy and want to be outside as much as possible, running around and playing.  If you aren't careful... this may be what comes back...

I look at my seedlings and wish the days warmer and longer just to watch them spring to life... and be that much closer to my dinner plate!  This is one of the times of year I also miss my parents the most.  Dad and I would sit around looking through seed catalogues or going to nurseries on the weekends.  Sometimes we would buy things, whether there was a place to put it or not, and other times we would just dream big.  I am a planner.  I draw pictures and graphs to plot things out.  I have 6 month - 1 year - 5 year plans for my yard, our vacations and just about everything.  Sometimes it evolves and changes along the way, but for the most part, I stick with it.  So I have goals to look forward to whether it is spring peas, my koi pond, or bringing home an adopted son.  Dad on the other hand was a plopper.  If there was an empty spot in the yard - in went the new plant.  Was it the right soil or lighting?  Didn't matter.  If it didn't work out there, he'd just grab a shovel and relocate it.  His favorite flowers were roses and iris.  Every year new varieties and colors would come out and he would try to sneak an order or new plant past my mom, but was rarely successful without being caught.  I was his "partner in crime".  After he and mom passed away, we moved into their house, the one I grew up in and lived from the time I was 3 years old until I married.  I am still trying to get the yard into some type of order - things went wild without his care and attention.  Plants that aren't a nuisance to others reseeded, suckered and spread here.  Trees grew in odd places and vines stealthily crept forward until they could leap out of hiding to cover everything in their path.  It is a labor of love, but also of perseverance and some good ole hard work (hey, honey!  Does this count as "exercise"?)  I know that every time I plant something, pull a weed or look through a nursery catalogue they are with me and enjoying the view.  I can also stroll through the yard and point out to my kids the stories and memories that I have of my parents/their grandparents to help build their memory in more than just stories, but in ways that will help them to recall them with all their senses... the smell of dirt and flowers and herbs, the sound of birds and bees, the taste of veggies and fruits from our garden. 

Spring is a time of rebirth and remembrance for me... and I value it's lessons.