Spring in My Step

It is amazing to watch all the trees, plants and grass spring back to life after winter. Some things that I thought were dead, are now budding out with the tiniest, tender leaves, showing me that I did not take the life of yet another plant during my winter neglect.

After a few months of my yard looking like a bad case of the blight, I'm excited to see green leaves popping out of what looked like a dead stick. In between those new leaves are the flowers I've been waiting on for months. Seeing all the spring color is like a breath of fresh air.

There is a price to pay for the beauty of the season. As I walked outside and inhaled deeply to take in the spring air, I immediately went into a hacking, coughing fit as all the pollen settled into every nook and cranny of my lungs. My body doubled over and my eyes bugged out, as my loud barking cough frightened several birds to take flight out of the nearest tree.

After recovering from the coughing episode, I regained my composure enough to see all the beautiful flora and fauna around my yard. I ran back indoors to grab the camera so I could document the very first flowers of the year. Every year I run around taking pictures of the same flowers as though I've never seen them in my yard before. This time each year I'm in renewed awe of the miracle of spring and the colors it brings.

I gave myself the walking tour of the yard, stopping at each flowering plant in hopes to capture my springtime experience in a photograph. As I approached the wisteria, I could smell it long before I got close enough to take a picture. Before putting the camera to use, I stuck my head in the blossoms to take in their sweet scent. I put my face in the middle of the flowers ready to breathe in the aroma, when a swarm of surprised bees decided they were being invaded.

As the militant swarm went into def-con mode, I think I heard them start their engines as they got into an attack "V" formation. The band of bees proceeded to come at me in full defensive force, dive bombing me with everything they could muster.  I took off running with a full bee escort!  In my sprint across the yard, with arms and legs flailing, I wanted to scream, "hold your fire, I surrender" but, I restrained myself for fear I would upset the neighborhood . I guess the bees finally agreed they had run me far enough away to teach me a lesson, so they patted each other on the back and returned to their home in the wisteria.

The pink azaleas in front of my bay window were in full bloom. The flowers were so thick, it was hard to tell where one blossom started and the other one ended. It was beautiful. 

As I stood there with my camera up to my eye, shooting pictures from every angle, I started to feel some sharp, stinging pains around my ankle. I looked down and my foot was right in the middle of an ant bed.

I quickly ran into the garage, trying to get my ant covered, double-tied (I can't help double tying shoestrings, I teach pre-school) tennis shoes off. I then managed to wiggle out of my jeans to get to the ants that were having a field day trying to escape from my too tight pants. After much slapping and brushing off, I was finally rid of the ant infestation, so I decided to go back out again to continue on my spring tour.

I wandered into the side yard where I was admiring the blossoms on my apple tree and my tulip tree. I was getting into position to photograph, when I felt it. Squish. I looked down and I had stepped in what I will nicely refer to as a "doggie deposit." Frustrated at my tour getting delayed again, I yelled at the dogs for acting like dogs. The dogs turned with a huff, slowly sauntered off and proceeded to give me the cold shoulder. I stood there again, trying to get those double tied shoelaces undone. I finally got my shoe off and start walking with a one shoe off limp, to the water hose to wash it off.

As I walked, I started noticing a cold wet feeling seeping up through my sock. The wet sock was telling me that the ground was still soggy from the last April shower. Now, I did not only have a shoe to deal with, I had a sock to change too.  I got to the patio and looked down and the bottom of my sock was not only wet, the top had all those little tree seed "thingys" stuck all over it.

Every time I would try brush them off my sock, they would just crumble into more pieces, making a bigger mess than I already had.  Sigh.... the perils of spring have sprung.

I did get a some great pictures of my spring yard tour but, I was reminded of everything else that goes along with this new season.  Spring had not only come to my yard, it had also put a little spring in my step.