May the Countdown Begin!

May Day(anyone remember those fun days of childhood), Mother's Day, Graduations, Birds, and Rain.

I always associate Spring with Mother's day because that was my request every year as the kids were growing up and asking what I wanted for "my" day. It was always flowers to plant in our containers and maybe even a new flower to plant in the gardens. Spring is the most uplifting time of year. And here in Colorado, it's just around the corner.

Plus, in Colorado, we don't dare plant anything fragile like flowers until after mother's day because we so often get our final major snow of the year that weekend, which also happens to be graduation weekend for most colleges in the area. And since I work at the university and live on the fringe of the university, this is a major day in our year! This year, we don't seem to be catching a break for our springtime weekends to get our yards cleaned up. It's rained every weekend for the last four weeks in a row, with snow several weekdays. It seems like every Wednesday, the sun has broken through the clouds and been gloriously warm – making it oh-so-tempting to leave for lunch and not return. And then by Friday, here comes the moisture again. This weekend is holding true to that pattern.

Three weeks ago we prepared for spring by cleaning out our canoe. You see, our house sits about 6 inches lower than our neighbors, and heavy downpours the water flows right over the rain gutters and into our basement. So in 2002, as my husband, daughter, our neighbor, his son, and I were out in the 3 hour downpour, trying to keep the water from creating a waterfall right into our house, I realized, the canoe that sits between our houses ¾ of the year without use, could finally do us some good. We flipped it over, and voila, we save our basement. And three weeks ago, even with a slow and steady rain, we filled the canoe twice, siphoned it out to the front lawn and let it do a little more good there before it flows down river. (One of these years we really should fix the landscape the "right" way, but this is so much more fun and fitting to our lives.)

I opened the door to let the dogs out this morning to a chorus of singing birds, and I have to admit, it was wonderful to hear their chipper little voices, even if there is rain on the way in just a few hours. It brought a smile to my face. I'm not much of a morning person and I do NOT wake up cheering the sunrise, even though we do have some pretty awesome sunrises in Colorado, too. I wake up dragging myself out of the warm, snuggly bed, tripping over the cat and dogs, racing them up the stairs to go outside. So anything that can make me smile at 5 am is nothing short of a miracle.

I can't wait for one more week, I want to play in the dirt and get my flowers in the ground! I want to see color in my gardens when I walk up to my house! I am definitely anxious for next weekend, when I can join the birds in their morning songs. And even with the rain, I still love spring!