Can We Talk 2

Spring Is Coming Eventually

Prompt: There are about ten days left until the first day of spring. What are you looking forward to about spring?

         The one thing I'm not looking forward to encountering is pollen. I know it's necessary for nature to continue the life cycle and insects to pursue. But we humans just weren't meant to intermingle with it. I sneeze and cough all year now. It's worse in the spring. I lose my voice. I can't afford to have someone else pull weeds and clean the yard, so I have to wear a face mask when I go out.

         I love seeing the bulbs come up. My irises have popped up and the jonquils are blooming. The tulips have popped up through the ground as well, but as soon as a flower appears, the deer will have their midnight snack. I will soon be able to return my potted plants to my back porch. They are in the garage or laundry room right now and look puny, but will come back to life with warmth and all day light. Actually, my pots of chives are under the wheel chair ramp. They can survive the winter out doors, but I wanted to keep the snow and ice off of them. We had little to none. They will burst into beautiful purple blooms which are edible (they taste like hot onions and will burn your mouth). Some of my sage plants have disappeared, and I love the smell of those.

         With the warmer weather, I will stop shivering in church. I can also send the kids outside to play when they come to visit. I can have landscape lights because of them or garden stakes. But indoors, they have wrecked my exercise bike, opened uncirculated coins, and taken knick-knacks from the book shelves out doors. They also think things in the laundry room are for play dress up. I can't watch them all the time. They sneak off while I'm busy and act like my house is just some big mystery for them to ransack. Outdoors is better for their type of destruction.

         I'm allergic to mosquitoes and they love me! They start to appear in spring, too. I live in the Southeast which is rampant with them. Nevertheless, I enjoy sitting on my back porch and smelling my flowers and herbs and watching the birds. The birds are there all year round, and so are the tree rats, which some people call squirrels. The sounds and the colors from this porch are wonderful. That I do anticipate.