Spring Fever.......

I need green!!! Luscious beautiful green. And bright fluorescent pink. And yellow. And blues that really aren't blue but purple!

But instead ....... I get this.Brown ............ Gray .................. and very dirty white.

And all I want to do -- is dig in the dirt. Ruin my nails, scratch up my hands and have filthy dirty knees on my jeans! I want to wear my polka-dotted boots and have them caked with mud. I want my hair flying everywhere and my nose cold from the chilly spring air.

Here on the hill -- I don't clean up the gardens in the fall. My excuse is that the gardens need the vegetation to protect the perennials, self-seeding annuals have the chance to seed and the praying mantis, ladybugs and other great insects have some winter protection. Reality is different.

By November, I have been opened for over 5 months. I have been showered, shampooed and dressed every morning by 8am. I have the bathroom cleaned -- the coop scooped -- and the gardens weeded. I am cheerful and happy and hopefully, friendly to all my customers. I have canned 700 jars of produce, held a hundred chickens for petting and pushed children on the swing a billion times!! But by November ............ I am tired. I need a nap and I don't want to shave my legs! I want to curl up under a blanket and let the winter pass in peace.

But NOW -- I am ready for green. I talk to anyone that will listen about my gardens. I pour over the seed catalogs and drool. I imagine new seating areas .... pretty little spaces in the gardens to hide and dream. I hear little wrens singing. And I am certain I can smell the sweet peas, blooming along the chicken yard. But my gardens are filled with brown.

So it was with great delight that I got one little garden cleaned this morning.

It went from this to this..............








Don't you think the barn needs a quilt block up in the peak?
Yep ......... me, too. Maybe this weekend.

Its still way early for spring here in Iowa. We are expecting snow again. But for a moment............. I got to dream in technicolor!