A Quiet Day in the Garden

Today has been a quiet day. Beautiful and sunny, but very quiet. The park next door was empty. I could hear the breeze in the treetops it was so quiet. On our walk, I rested for a few minutes with my eyes closed and my face to the sun while my dog rummaged through the old cattails looking for stray baseballs (he found one which has been fermenting in the goop all winter).

It's the beginning of spring break here for the area schools. I think everyone has flown south for the week.

I tidied up the back yard by gathering sticks and fallen branches, enjoying the quiet and the song of the wind through the pines and the just-budding branches of other trees.

I'm not really a gardener. I do a garden blogger's bloom day post every now and then (supposed to be on the 15th of each month), but really I'm just an impostor. My posts consist of cleverly cropped photos leading you to believe that my yard is bursting with bloom and color. You will note that you will never see a panoramic, or full shot of the whole yard. I also post pictures of what's blooming wild in the park next door.

If you've ever read Harry Potter, you'll know what I mean when I say that, for comparison's sake, my yard is a Weasley yard (rusting cauldron by the doorstep, stray galoshes piled up, and gnomes in the garden) and not a Dursley yard (everything prim and trimmed and neat).

Nonetheless, I do put forth a bit of effort. This year I even thought ahead and started seeds indoors. I've even got several things sprouting in my sprout tray:

Last year when we rototilled a garden spot in the way back, I had to say goodbye to all of my lovely wild violets. I've been grieving that decision recently because 1) wild violets are my favorite flowers, and 2) they are some of the first bloomers and I was already beginning to miss them, even though it's early yet.

But wandering around in the mud patch back there, I spotted some hangers-on pushing up through the earth. Hooray! I'll have some violets after all:



And speaking of rototilling, how good a job could we have done if these are coming up in the middle of the vegetable garden plot?:

Spring is really here. The crocuses have arrived and late snowstorms haven't even spoiled the show, as usual, to cover them up again:

Happy Spring!