Daffodowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

Snd shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbour:

"Winter is dead."

from When We Were Very Young

A.A. Milne

From winter to spring, how quickly time passes.

Today I took advantage of a little quiet time, Ty's at her boyfriend and Dave's working. I grabbed my shovel and pruners, new gardening gloves and a bit of bird seed, and headed to the yard. I'm reorganizing the yard. While Dave and I were away the yard was not high on the priority list, so this year I am treating it like a blank palate, begin again FRESH. The first step is moving the raised beds from the east side of the yard to the west and closer to the house. I want a true kitchen garden. I thought why not dig down a bit and make the boxes a little deeper, I did not anticipate the number of rocks I'd encounter on this venture. At first I attacked each rock head on getting frustrated as I went. Each rock not wishing to give up its spot in the yard. If this was an animated movie the rock would grow tendrils through the soil and these tendrils would turn into limbs hugging the earth to to its mineralized composition. Or maybe the rocks would link their arm like tendrils together in a tug of war display... It doesn't matter all I know was trying to dig them out wasn't working. So trying for a new tactic I found a smaller shovel and began clearing the smaller rocks around them, and then for some unfathomed notion the larger rocks began breaking apart. As I dug around getting the rocks smaller counterparts I began to realize this isn't much different to attacking life's issues. It occurred to me that problems always seem to be huge and unsurmountable when attacking them head on. However, when I work at the smaller issues surrounding the bigger problem the one issue that seemed unyielding simply begins to break into smaller more manageable pieces. WOW life's lessons learned while gardening, very Zen.

I look forward to the reawakening that spring and soon summer will reveal to me. It reminds me of when I first moved into my house eleven years ago. The yard was a tangled crazy mass of chaos then as well, but over time, listening carefully, it told me what to do, showed me things hidden in the unruliness and it will again. Only this time I'm not a rookie, so let's hope it doesn't take another eight years for the plan to come together.

Best to you and yours,

and may your weeds be blessings in disguise.

Vanessa