Three On Thursday Spring Edition

Happy Spring, friends! After a long slog of a winter we can officially celebrate the arrival of spring. And, while the weather may not always be as marvelous as we want, there are still very clear signs that spring has arrived . . . and I don’t just mean the crocus and hellebores. Here are 3 other signs that spring is here.

1. My pruners and snips are sharpened and ready to go. There’s a funny story connected to these tools this year. Last Sunday when I headed out to the yard to prune my hellebores I went to the basket to grab my pruning shears and they weren’t there. I looked all around in a panic because I always put them in the same place and I couldn’t understand why they weren’t there. It was when I realized that my snips were missing too that I remembered . . . I gave then to Dale last November and asked him to bring them to the hardware store to have them sharpened. I went outside and said, “hey, did you ever pick up my pruning shears and snips after you dropped the off for sharpening?” He looked at me quizzically for a moment (I could literally see the wheels turning) and then admitted that he had forgotten all about them. I mean, I had, too, and at least we knew where they were. He picked them up yesterday and they are ready to get to work.
2. I treated myself to a garden kneeler and bench and it arrived yesterday. I got the purple, in case you were wondering. I think this will really help my knees when I am out there weeding (and weeding and weeding) this spring. And it flips over to a seat which will come in handy as well. I’ll never say I’m excited about weeding but having the right tools makes a big difference.
3. My plant shopping date with Doreen is officially on my calendar. We have blocked off 4 days in the middle of May for our shopping extravaganza and we will narrow it down to 2 consecutive days when the weather forecast is available. Doreen claims to have a “whole different approach” to what she’s getting this year and to that I replied that I will believe it when I see it. And I don’t say that to be mean but rather it’s based on years of experience doing this together. We think we know what we want and make a plan and then we get distracted by all the pretty plants and those plans go right out the proverbial window. And that’s half the fun, truth be told!

Those are my signs of spring that aren’t really signs of spring. I’m still waiting to see my first red-winged blackbird and hear my first peepers but I’m sure that will happen any day now.