March 18

As i write this post, i am sitting outside on my snow-free back porch, listening to the laundry snapping in the brisk spring breezes, hearing kids outside playing, having had a little poke around my back garden to see if anything has survived the brutal winter and to my delight, yes, there are little green shoots popping up here and there - i believe the onions again were the winners - last year they were the first to poke their heads up and they seem to be the first this year too!  Funny since last year i kinda let them grow wild and huge just to see what happened and i thought i had pulled them all out - but apparently not.  My strawberry plants have overwintered well and seem to have multiplied somewhere under the cozy snowbanks and i'm hoping to actually have a few berries this year - that would be exciting to be sure - a little bit of Tiggies in my own back yard. 
I pulled on my wellies and headed for the shed - wondering what i would find there since i hadn't ventured to the back of the garden since about  oh...November???  I undid the lock and creaked open the door - all seemed perfectly in order and the same as i had left it last fall, if not a little dustier.  I reached for the broom and began the quintessentially spring-like exercise of sweeping off the patio and driveway - clearing off all the winter dust and grime - i think my brooming muscles are sadly out of shape because it didn't take me long to feel them complaining to the utmost "stop working us so hard - don't you know that we're not in working order yet?"  Silly muscles (i desparately want to insert here "trix are for kids" but maybe no one remembers that commecial?  I am getting old after all!)  
And now i can soak up a few of the spring rays, listening to the birds happily conversing in the trees, spreading the "spring" message - i must say that though  i don't mind winter (really for all you doubting thomases who have laughed at my furnace settings and such), there is something infectiously invigorating about spring, isn't there?  You just want to get on your hands and knees, get the shovels out and dig in the dirt to see what will be produced this year.... my mind turns to seed catalogues and planting and gardening - i do miss that during the year - though i am no Mr MacGregor (aka Peter the Rabbit fame). 
My picture of the day is my first crocus that has ventured its tender little head above soil-level - greeting me this morning as i trudged home from work - what a nice image to take to sleep with me!   Geniet ervan!