Waiting

The month of March has always been an "in-between" month in the year. Winter is on its way out, but Spring is still playing hard-to-get. There are sunny, balmy days when you can run around in shirt sleeves, then there are windy chilly days that feel an awful lot like winter. Today we had a mix - we started out with thunderstorms during the night and buckets of rain - big puddles everywhere this morning! It was quite chilly went I left the house at 9 a.m. to take Kelly to work. As the day went on, the sun came out for a while, the rain stopped and voila! it was springtime for a couple of hours. By dinnertime we were back to clouds and light rain, with temperatures around 50 degrees. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? ... More of the same, no doubt.

I wandered around the back yard while it was sunny this afternoon, checking my perennials and tiptoeing around the many puddles and squishy areas. I can see things beginning to happen - my hollyhocks are bravely growing big green leaves, the forsythia bush is showing some tiny yellow buds and the tulips are coming up in the gardens in the front yard. The waiting is almost over!

Beanie took advantage of the nice afternoon to stroll around the deck and take care of his personal hygiene in the sunshine. He gave Tango a dirty look when she dropped the ball nearby as he bathed - "And what am I supposed to do with THAT dirty thing?" he wondered to himself.

I puttered around my work bench for a while - not doing much, just straightening up, getting the itch to start planting seeds - I just want to DO something to get the ball rolling! My gnomes have been standing idle all winter - they need to be washed up a little before I put them out. My dozens of pots need to have the cobwebs dusted off and I need to wash them out before I start fresh with new annuals in May. The bird bath needs a bath of its own before it gets filled up. But it's still too soon, really. I have to hold off until early April to get going - we'll probably have one last blast of snow flurries at some point, and plenty of frost. And so I wait. Impatiently, but I wait.

My ever-faithful companion when I'm outside is Tango. She's at my heels, blocking my way, dancing around me as she "drops the ball" begging me to toss that nasty green tennis ball for her to fetch. She really does have a one-track mind - "play ball with me, please play ball with me!" And so no matter what I'm doing, I have to stop periodically and throw the slimy ball out into the yard.

Only 10 days until the official first day of Spring!