Spring can be a fickle season here in the mountains of western North Carolina. For the past week, temperatures have been holding steady in the very summery high 70s/low 80s. After the long, bitter cold winter we just endured, I'm certainly not complaining. I could sit and soak in the sun for hours. Still, that's a bit unusual for early April, so naturally we're cautious. And while we're perfectly willing to ahead and sow the lettuce bed (with baby lettuce and kale!), plow, weed eat the perimeter, drain ditches, and generally lay the foundations for the season, we won't be doing any major planting until May.
But this past weekend's gardening preview was absolutely delightful. It felt so good to dig my fingers deep into the earth, and obviously, Miss Kate couldn't agree more. I don't believe those little hands will be clean again until Thanksgiving, but I don't even care. My little one is quite the enthusiastic fan of dirt and worms, and planting lettuce and kale was the most fun she's had in ages, after being cooped up all winter.
I've always sort of enjoyed winter. I wouldn't call it my favorite season, but there is something to be said for the quiet, peaceful contentment of engaging in the more sedentary pursuits of reading and watching movies, curled up by a roaring fire. But this winter was so extreme (again, I'm from the south, so this is all relative), that even I tired of it. We all suffered from cabin fever in the very literal sense. Needless to say, I've been overjoyed to see, hear, smell, and taste the bustling of the natural world coming back to life, the budding trees, the buzzing bees, the daffodils, the dandelions! I'm just thrilled. In those dark days of winter it was hard to imagine, but spring, of course, always comes again.
Spring can be a fickle season here in the mountains of western North Carolina. For the past week, temperatures have been holding steady in the very summery high 70s/low 80s. After the long, bitter cold winter we just endured, I'm certainly not complaining. I could sit and soak in the sun for hours. Still, that's a bit unusual for early April, so naturally we're cautious. And while we're perfectly willing to ahead and sow the lettuce bed (with baby lettuce and kale!), plow, weed eat the perimeter, drain ditches, and generally lay the foundations for the season, we won't be doing any major planting until May.
But this past weekend's gardening preview was absolutely delightful. It felt so good to dig my fingers deep into the earth, and obviously, Miss Kate couldn't agree more. I don't believe those little hands will be clean again until Thanksgiving, but I don't even care. My little one is quite the enthusiastic fan of dirt and worms, and planting lettuce and kale was the most fun she's had in ages, after being cooped up all winter.
I've always sort of enjoyed winter. I wouldn't call it my favorite season, but there is something to be said for the quiet, peaceful contentment of engaging in the more sedentary pursuits of reading and watching movies, curled up by a roaring fire. But this winter was so extreme (again, I'm from the south, so this is all relative), that even I tired of it. We all suffered from cabin fever in the very literal sense. Needless to say, I've been overjoyed to see, hear, smell, and taste the bustling of the natural world coming back to life, the budding trees, the buzzing bees, the daffodils, the dandelions! I'm just thrilled. In those dark days of winter it was hard to imagine, but spring, of course, always comes again. 
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