Yes It's Spring In The Great Northwest...Or....I Pray The 40 Ft. Fir Doesn't Crash Down On My Home

It's time to throw open the windows and let the fresh spring air waft blow throughout the house.  The great northwest is under siege at the moment with winds here in the Portland area up to 50 mph.  I'm sitting in my studio/office with the blinds open enjoying a brief moment of sunshine, watching the 40 to 50 foot fir in my back yard sway with the winds.  I'm praying the fir's roots have dug deep into mother earth and that my ceiling doesn't meet floor in a thunderous crash.

I do love storms, the energy swirling around, tugging at my hair and clothes; scrubbing the air clean.  

Spring? Dreaming of Gardening

Our forecast is for "April" weather the next few days. It's only mid February!! Now if I just had the next few days off. Last weekend between house work and home work, I got out my seed catalogs and gardening magazines. I'm just itching to plop down in the middle of my backyard, dig into the soil and run my hands through it.

My love of gardening is a gift from my Grandmother. I spent many warm sunny days when I was little, digging and weeding in her large garden. On winters visits, she would get out her notebook and seed catalogs and ponder what we would plant in the spring. The vegetable garden and flower beds, the cutting garden.

I've been walking my backyard the last couple of nights when I get home, designing in my head. A small drift of astilbe and hostas at the edge of the fir in dappled shade, closer to the trunk of the fir, a curved bench with hostas on either side. I'd like to sprinkle trillium here and there in the shady half of my yard. The yard had been landscaped at one time I'm sure. Some of the structure is still there, some of it will be removed to make room for my studio. But the forsythia, lilacs and rhododendrons will stay. The boxwood and azaleas,old and scruffy, will go. It will be a full spring and summer. Now if I could just import firefly's for the summer evenings, and still it's only February.