Spring In January

Spring seems to be springing extra early this year. I would tell you it was ushered in by the first Robin of Spring but our Robins never flew off, instead they opted to lazily sit in large groups in my back yard while I was camera-less and unable to document their flocking. Instead, it was heralded in by the tulips and honey bees.

Now being from the great white North, this entire space between October and now has felt incredibly off to me. First of all, it's only dropped below 40* two, maybe three, times during the day. I haven't fallen into a state of Seasonal Affective Disorder or a state of deep introspection. Maybe there's been a bit of writer's block, artist block and a few unmotivated days of couch potato-ism, but I'm chalking that up to working 45+ hour weeks strangling the life from my bones. There hasn't been a single snowflake, nor real ice and while there has been frost on my car a few mornings, I haven't had to break out anything heavier than my hoody. My poor wool coat is sitting in the closet sighing sadly as I'm outside weeding the gardens.

Gloves? Who needs stinkin' gloves.

With the lack of deep freezes and it being too dark or chilly when I get home to weed, the vetch, dandelions, crab grasses, etc never died off during the winter and have more or less taken over my back garden. Luckily, it's been gorgeous and I've gotten out twice this week to begin to pluck them away from my strawberries, crocus, roses, sages and lavenders.

With the trees budding, the bees buzzing and the temperature rising, I've been perusing seed catalogs and ordering things for the vegetable garden. We'll be expanding it a wee bit this year, adding another bed and several large ceramic pots to fill in gaps between beds which I plan to fill with herbs and bee attracting flowers. We'll be replacing the musty old mulch with a thick layer of gravel to prevent the return of the great weed takeover and eliminate the moist nastiness that mosquitoes seemed to love last year, as well as building a much more sturdy fence. I plan to actually get some beans this year and not let the rabbits eat all of them.

Still with all this Spring in the air and the fever of it all dancing in my brain, I'm still a bit weirded out that it's only January. I'm a bit weirded out that my birthday will be here in 16 days and it will possibly be classified as a Spring birthday! Not that I'm complaining mind you, I've always hated having a winter birthday since Momma Nature just loves to give me lots of snow every year, but it's definitely taking some getting used to.

P.S. All those extra hours at work were actually good for something (if not my sanity or art). Those photos, right up there? Those were taken with my shiny, new to me camera that I ordered two weeks ago. It feels so good to have one again, I felt like a big part of me was missing the past few months. :)

P.P.S. I'm sad to say, with all that's been going on, I won't be hosting the February Fairies party this year. Perhaps, when things calm down a bit, I can host it in a different month.