Blue Skies, Bright Sun

Friday and Saturday surprised me in the most pleasant way possible. It was warm. It was sunny. So warm and sunny, in fact, that I had the immense privilege of wandering out into the back yard in my short sleeves to dig in the dirt. Last fall, I covered a garden spot with all of the leaves that floated down from the trees. And there were a whole bunch. It took me and Justin several days to clean them all up. Well, now is the time when they must all come off. So yesterday and today I raked and hoed and shoveled until I was quite tired and warmed by the sun. I have a crop of blisters to prove it, but I really don’t mind. After the long, long winter, I was only too pleased to be outside for a change. Here’s where I stand in the garden so far:

As you can see, there’s still plenty to do before I can plant anything, but it will get done bit by bit.

It’s been fun making spring time discoveries. We didn’t move into this house until August, and there weren’t many flowers planted or blooming. So, imagine my surprise at finding spring flowers opening up here and there and everywhere.

They brighten up the yard so much. Justin went off to buy more flowers to plant in all of the sadly-neglected flower beds around here. He was gone an awfully long time, most likely getting carried away with all of the possibilities. He likes sprucing things up.

On Saturday afternoon, I took my Sunday School materials outside to study for the class I teach. Cora was good enough to join me and have an airing out. She has been a bit cranky lately.

I came across a sweet little poem about spring a week or so ago. It’s called To the Thawing Wind by Robert Frost:

Come with rain, O loud Southwester! Bring the singer, bring the nester; Give the buried flower a dream; Make the settled snow-bank steam; Find the brown beneath the white; But what’re you do tonight, Bathe my window, make it flow, Melt it as the ices go; Melt the glass and leave the sticks Like a hermit’s crucifix Burst into my narrow stall; Swing the picture on my wall; Run the rattling pages o’er; Scatter poems on the floor; Turn the poet out of door.

Neither me or Cora are poets by any stretch of the imagination, but spring does have a knack for turning me out of door. And though today is quite chilly, wet and dreary, the past sunny days have reminded me once again that spring really is here and that warm days are ahead. I have been thanking God about twenty times a day for warmth, blue skies, and a bright sun. He is very kind to us always, whether there are blue skies or not.

Happy Spring!

“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.” Isaiah 40:8