Spring Chores :: Spring Light

Daylight savings time was a gift on many levels for this working mama.

Instead of returning to the homestead in the dark, I drive home with the pink and golden evening sun-lit sky stretching out before me. I get to put Willa on my back and trudge out to the soil, to the garden and sometimes beyond - for a walk. And, with her early bedtime, the evening can continue. I can work in the garden for a spell. Listening to the birds, poking in the dirt.

Last week, I eked out every moment I could - with the fading light. Irises tucked away. Snap peas and sweet peas sown. Calendula, lettuces, spinach, kale starts, and radishes in the raised beds. The herb bed fed with compost - with sage, chives, rosemary, oregano, yarrow and lavender peaking out. The rhubarb is unfurling.

The outdoor room (photos soon) that I can see from our big front window is coming together. I just ordered some willow wattle fencing and am putting hints of blue here and there. A bird bath, large glazed pottery and The Bench. The true-blue ephemeral bulbs are sprouting in the grass and in other spots - where-ever the earth moving machines deposited them. Turns out the happenstance nature of that sort of landscaping suits me.

This week :: Clearing more of the raised beds to make way for sowing carrots and planting mulberries and juneberries. Ordering some daylilies. Tracking down some echinacea, yarrow and black-eyed susan seeds to give the seed balls another go-round. And finally putting up the bluebird houses (we, ah-em, received these as gifts five (!) years ago).

Hope the longer days are giving you what you need as spring kicks into gear!