Spring Fever

Spring is not something to be taken for granted when you've endured winter for what feels like the past 17 years straight. Seemingly overnight, the grass has turned green, the leaves are budding and the skies are blue. Here is our very first tulip of the season, with more following any moment now. Temperatures are in the mid to high 70s. Beautiful exotic birds are arriving by the plane load, singing their little heads off as they go about their daily routine once again. The Riverwalk is buzzing with children feeding ducks, and suited businessmen taking time out to smell the flowers. Neighbours are out in the streets once more, almost ready to burst into song as they throw open their windows. The hum of lawn mowers fills the air.
Of course what this really means is that we'll be off to the garden centre any minute to stock the car with shrubs we don't have the energy to plant. Every leaf that blooms is just one more to add to the moutain that appears on the ground in the autumn. The weeds will strangle any flowers we do have, and it will be only be a week before it's too hot to sit outside.