Okay now! Sunshine! Let's get to work! Still a little nippy out there, but that's April for you! Let's get started. First task: weeds and debris. Clear the beds as best as I can.
But but but... there's still a dusting of snow on the ground!
Nah, that's night stuff. Be gone in a minute.
But but but... there's breakfast to prepare!
Alright, eat your breakfast. Then get to it!
But but but... the proofs for my Great Writing Project have arrived! I need to go over them.
Fine -- do one chapter, move it along and then pause and work outside.
No, really, I can't. I have a very important phone call with a Polish friend. We're all set to talk in the late morning!
Well then talk! How long can that take?
Turns out it can take a while. Still, by noon, I'm done with Poland. Phone calls, emails, all of it.
And so I step outside. Snow's gone, crocuses have opened up.
So where do I even begin?
I take out a new pair of gardening gloves. That's always an inspired moment. Gloves, fresh, clean, on your hands, ready to do some serious digging and pulling.
And I do have a vision of sorts: my motto for this year? Don't be thorough. Don't clear all the spent stuff. Don't pull all the creeping charlie. Attack the biggest offenders first and then, as if expanding beyond the core, work on a bit of the detail.
So that is what I do. For an hour. Ed comes out then and offers to help, but garden clearing weed pulling are tricky jobs for him. He cant tell a weed from a perennial and he doesn't see new growth, so moving around an early spring flower bed risks having him trample down new tips. Instead, we go on an inspection walk. To the new tomato field, and lavender patch. To the new orchard. Up and down farmette lands, in the glorious sunshine of mid April.
In the later afternoon, I pay a visit to the young family.
(Kids, at play)
At home again, another Zoom call, and before you know it, it's evening and the work day, or rather the potential for outdoor work fades.
But that's okay. I had a good start. Only please do not remind me that our taxes are due in a few days. I do not want to hear it.
Ed, want to make some popcorn?
We settle in to watch the next series that sucked us in -- about British people who, with very few pounds, want to build a home of their dreams. It's a great reprieve from the violence and horrors of what we'd been watching before I left for my trip. Mellow, tame. Spring time hope. Dreams, realized.
