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| You know it's Spring when the coleus come out! |
I was on Spring Break last week, and instead of going on
some fabulous trip—like my Thanksgiving jaunt to Paris— I stayed home to get
stuff done around the house. There’s the regular spring cleaning inside, but
what really draws me in this time of year is getting the yard presentable. It
seems to be the thing to do just as soon as the little green tips begin
sticking their heads out of the ground. So far I have raked up 30 bags of
leaves around the homestead (1/4 an acre in the city counts as a homestead,
right?), and I have at least 40 more before I’m done for the season thanks to
my 8 ancient trees. Boy do I like the shade they provide in the summer, though!
Last week also led to the planting of salad, herb and
lavender troughs—goat trough gardens instead of raised beds. I’ve had these
around for about 10 years. They’ve made appearances in earlier posts to this
blog. This year they’ve already provided
us with two salads and herbal accompaniment to another meal or two.
I have lots of pots of flowers and even a few pots of
tomatoes. I love this time of year. It does seem to take over my life, though.
Not much gets done anywhere else—house cleaning, writing, reading—when there is
a garden to tend. It feels good to get it done. Bring in the beautiful so that
when I do have time to stop to read or write, I’m able to do it outside in the
garden!
The house cleaning, well…I unintentionally live by the late,
great Governor Ann Richards’ theory of housework- “I did not
want my tombstone to read, 'She kept a really clean house.'” I
mean, I did change my sheets, but that was about it.