Ready for Spring

Things are blooming in the yard: daffodils, forsythia, pear trees, plum tree, and crabapple tree (almost). All of the perennials have pushed up new shoots and will soon be growing and on their way to contributing color to the yard.  I'm ready for it.  Every day I do a little puttering in the yard, cleaning up dead stuff from the winter, fertilizing some things, and making plans for the season.  I'm not having to work too hard since I had the cleanup crew here in the fall.  But, boy, the weeds are sure growing!

I finished my winter indoor projects and am very happy with the results.  The rooms feel finished, homey, and welcoming.

I have even done a few projects on the One-Day Project list which I had planned to start in April.  That list has turned out to be a pretty fun one after all.  I really like working on things I can complete, start to finish, in just one day or maybe two.  I had planned to do just one or two items on the list each week throughout the summer.  But honestly, right now I find I'm able to do more than that.  It's a non-deadline sort of thing.  I just look at the list at the start of the week and choose what I want to do.  I'll probably finish most of the list in April and May.  And that's good, as this year I will have the grandkids all summer, all day, five days a week, since they are no longer on year-round school schedule. 

Yesterday it rained, and my yard was happy for the water. It is supposed to rain again this evening.  After such a dry winter, I worry about water for my yard.  If we have watering restrictions, I may not do any new planting, just maintain the established plants.  Those well-established drought tolerant plants will do fine with less water and I'll still have pretty color throughout the summer.  And I'll still do some patio pots with annuals for extra color.  Those don't require a significant amount of water.  I'm still hoping we might see a more wet pattern emerge like last year, and get more rain in the spring months.

The new season is upon us.  The blooms and the fragrant air can't help but lift our spirits.

 It's a little chilly for sitting more than a few minutes on the patio today (although it has been in the 70s this month and will be again later this week).  But I wanted to grab a picture of the earliest blooms just for perspective as the summer progresses.