Friday, April 18, 2014

The Lure of Labor in the Lavender and Lilac

I started out the day with the best of intentions.
It's a holiday.
I'll clean house.
I'll scrub the kitchen.
I'll do the laundry.

Then I took a brief, brisk walk.
On my way back, I noticed an offending rose-bush branch that had plopped itself right over my sidewalk. That rose bush was wildly out of hand. Stepping inside for a pair of lawn shears, I noticed that my kitchen window was sadly cloudy; maybe if I trimmed the rosebush out of the way, I could reach it without scratching my arms and give it a wash.




 Three hours later, two of my back windows were washed, Three lawn bags of old leaves cleaned from the flowerbed and sacked for pickup. The lavender had been transplanted back into the bed, from which it had been straying a little further every year for the last ten, and the crowded irises thinned and transplanted to the bare bed where once tomatoes struggled. The tulip beds were watered, the lawn raked and ready for rain, the rose bushes trimmed almost into oblivion...and the lilac? Well I couldn't trim it in bloom like that. It smells wonderful.

Sigh. The house is still in dire need of straightening. Maybe tomorrow.
But hey! It's spring! And the weather outside is exhilarating!

And I'm not the only one who's going to think so. Somebody loves "plowers".