A Curious Statistical Anomaly

I’m beginning to think most of my life is work — 24/7. Good thing it’s fun. Today, I entered books into the database. Packed stuff for reviewers to be mailed out later. Then answered email. Forwarded nice comments to some of the reviewers. Did the Wii for 33 minutes and read.

I finished 39 Clues: Book 3 by Peter Lerangis for a May review in SFRevu. Also finished The Haunting of Derek Stone: Bayou Dogs by Tony Abbott (May review in SFRevu) and The Trail of the Wild Rose: An English Garden Mystery by Anthony Eglin (May review-Gumshoe Review). Just started The Language of Bees by Laurie King (May review in Gumshoe Review).

I cleaned up the house a bit (I hate house cleaning and want a wife to do it for me). I made a small dent in the paper blizzard on my office table (I’m currently working in the dining room).

For fun and because it has to be done, I went out and raked the yard. I managed to rake up three enormous piles. When hubby got home he moved the piles onto a tarp and took them out into the woods and dumped the leaves to compost. The problem is it still looks like I didn’t do anything much at all. However, we’re gaining on it. I’ve still got a lot of clearing to do before planting time comes around.

Today, I feel like I’m gaining on it a bit.

After complaining about all the rain and the damp, we’ve had several dry days. Today was beautiful and in the 70’s. So, after catching up on some email, pulling all the old review copies that are at least four months past publication and/or the date we received the book (in the case of books that are older), I finally had organized shelves of review copies. Then there was the wash and the dishes and so on and so on.

Finally, walked down to get the Sunday paper at the mailboxes with my hubby and when we got back we decided to put in some garden time. First up was the porch — I swept and cleaned out the gardening pots. We’ve got three blueberry bushes on the deck — the only place to put them so we actually get blueberries to eat (or at least we get more than the critters do). Then we have a pot of summer savory — a perennial that is still doing well. Then two pots that will eventual hold a tomato and the other a cucumber plant (easier to just get for a salad that way).

Then we cleared and cleaned up the table in front of the sliding glass doors. It will eventually hold a geranium and brighten up my view from the living room. We also cleaned/cleared up the barbecue so we’re ready to go for the summer.

Next we moved down to ground level. We cleared the leaves off the mulch around the peonies and found the lovely tips of the plants coming up out of the ground. All four of the peonies are returning and the two peony trees already have buds. We learned we need to buy some more bricks to finish the outline of this area and we need to add more mulch.

Then we clipped back some of the raspberry plants, tied them up and pulled those that had dipped over and started to make a break for it into areas not authorized by us for their new homes. Looks like the raspberries will do well again this year. Of course whether we get them or the crows and birds do is up for debate at this point. We then moved down to the orchard area to check out a run of daffodils and tulips that line a path through the woods. I’m going to have to separate some of the plants this year and spread them out.

Then as things go, we started to pull up some of the brush, then the kudzo and one bunch led to another and another and an hour later we’d cleared about ten square feet of underbrush and kudzo. Only 4+ acres to go…. and we didn’t even do the herb circle.

Now I can barely move and I know I’ll regret all this work tomorrow or at least my body will. But, then it’s supposed to rain tomorrow so I’m glad we got this done today. I’m getting real excited about gardening this summer.

Today it was in the mid-30’s and it snowed a bit. It melted as soon as it touched the ground and later turned to rain.  But, cold and rain means it felt even colder. What makes it weird is that just two days ago on Wednesday the temp was near 80 and I was outside without a sweater or a jacket.

I noticed then that our forsythia bushes are all budded up and a there’s some bright yellow showing. These are the harbingers of spring that I really love — they just flash their brilliant yellow flowers — shouting to all who listen that it is spring.

The azaleas have got some leaves and buds too. The tulips and irises have shot up their leaves. No sign of flowers yet, but the promise is there.

I’m starting to think of gardening and ran about pulling all the gardening catalogs out along with the one or two seed catalogs that I got. I’ve got the pots and the soil to get the seeds started in the house. Once they get growing they’ll be transferred to the garden area.

I love spring; it’s such a time of promise and hope. What about you? What do you look forward to when you recognize the signs of the coming spring and summer months?