Clean-up

I just finished the spring clean-up of yard and gardens. We went all-out to protect the gardens this year: a thick layer of leaves, and pine and fir boughs downed by the storms on top on that. Will it make a difference? We're such amateurs that we'll never know. Even if the gardens are gorgeous this year, maybe it was the wet spring, the constant storms, extra worms, the recovery of the economy, fate.

Spring does seem to be here (although some of the leaves were still wet and half-frozen to the ground). The hostas and the lilies are just peeking through, and there were crocuses behind the house at the corner of Ash Point and Lucia Beach . Winter is good for occasional skiing and snowshoeing, warm fires, and contrast with Florida, but very few people in the northern half of the country would say they'd like a little more, please. And nobody will feel unliberated in the warm(ish) sun and the prospect of more.

So it's time to take off the sweatshirts, and the leaf blankets, and the flannel sheets. Unboard your windows and doors, and let the sunshine in.