Spring Haz Sprung

Up here in the mountains we wait a lot longer for green than down in the rest of California. But when it arrives, it arrives with great enthusiasm and perhaps folks appreciate it more for the long wait.

A neighbor's yard sported these cheerful tulips. I liked the mottled deep shadow.

Another neighbor's yard, I took this photo on one of my walks. I've had a lot of company on my walks this week, with Lisa and Joli and sometimes their dog Kota joining me. Today Lisa and I walked up around the old abandoned hospital (rather sad and spooky, photos another day) and I noticed a blooming lilac. Since no one goes up there to see them (we were trespassing by walking across the back of the property, shhhh, keep it to yourself), I gathered a big handful of them and brought them home for a vase. Lisa says the smell is overpowering. I love it.


Everything is blooming. I liked this old wheelbarrow left out under someone's apple trees. Hmmm, I suppose they could be pear trees. Speaking of apple trees, the stump of my cut down apple has some green shoots popping up. I doubt it can regrow into a tree, but hubby says it's fine to leave it to be a "bush".

I had to buy a shiny new red wheelbarrow today. One of the wooden handle supports on our old one busted clean through. It had seen a lot of use and abuse. We bought another cheap one that's probably not up to some of the heavier things we ask of it, but since we more often use it for lighter garden work, I can't really justify the cost and storage of a larger one. What I'm currently using it for is to cart sand from the pile in the far side of the front yard all the way around to the alley and into the backyard.


I'm trying to "refashion" these piles of broken cement into a stone pathway. It not only costs money to have it hauled away, and costs money to pour new cement, but it seems more environmental friendly to reuse it.



Here's the start of things. These aren't set, just placed in a potential pattern. What a mess. No spring green back here yet. Just piles of dirt and rocks and displaced garden stuff. This pic is actually from a week or so ago. I've been working about an hour or two every day - that's about all my scraped hands and aching muscles can handle - digging, laying sand, and setting the stones in place. It doesn't look much different now, still just piles of dirt and rocks, the finished work is sort of hidden under a layer of dirt until it settles.

It's hard to keep at it when you can't see any progress being made but there's no way to do it all in one full sweep. Fortunately, although invisible, progress IS being made. After the bones of it are finished - the fences (already moved and reset) and the stone work (in progress) - putting the rest of it together should go a lot faster.

It's hard, tiring work. So, why is it the slackers that are getting all the sleep?