Spring. We are all anxiously waiting for it. Spring is my favorite season in Texas. But this year something is a miss. Usually the day after February 28th I am feverishly planning a weekend to pull the camping trailer out of storage so I can freshen it up for the next round of three day holidays. By this time I am hounding my husband to take the motorcycle in for its annual inspection and possibly get new tires. Messages have not been sent to my grown children to call me so I may inform them to pull the covers off the boats and get them prepped. Our equipment needs to be ready at the first sign of nesting birds in our backyard and blooming pear blossoms across the street so we may hit the road whether it be by truck or motorcycle. It is March Madness for me as I scan the magazines and Internet for motorcycle rallies and new campgrounds. We basically have March, April and May before it starts to get really hot. The heat is tough on us old people and the new baby that my son added to the family so we need to make the most of these three months. Among all of these endeavors I also have the lawnmower serviced and the weed eater restrung because I cannot wait to get dirt under my fingernails and feel the soft green grass under my bare feet. Each spring and summer I toil long and hard to grow nice healthy green grass and lush vegetation around my home. My love is the big Live Oak tree in the front yard. Do you think it is weird to be in love with a tree? At least I have not gone as far as to marry my tree like that guy on the news who married his pillow. Either that guy is nuts or he has a really great sense of humor. Anyway, back to why I am not happy to have spring breathing down my neck. Last fall we had to have our foundation repaired which reeked havoc with my yard. The flowerbeds are destroyed and the grass was trampled. My entry porch needs to be resurfaced and horrors upon horrors the winter ice storm broke major limbs of my majestic tree. Each beautiful limb laying haphazardly on top of each other like fallen soldiers upon the ground covered in ice. I was so distraught I did not go out for several days. A tree surgeon was summoned and did the best he could to salvage my beloved tree. It is such a sad sight. Days and weeks have passed without my notice. The whole dreary winter was mine to call landscapers to come pour new curbing, structure a sidewalk and repair the porch so we can replant in the spring. My husband and I talked about it and I scoured the net for ideas and even attended the spring and garden home show, but did not send a single email or dial a single number. What is the difference between stamped, stained, overlay, stone and cobble? Oh yes and I should not forget aggregate! My head is spinning with foreign information. I thought shrubs and bushes were one in the same. Ignorance really was bliss because I am still having a problem distinguishing the two. Will the flowerbed be in the shade this year? We don't know if the tree will produce that much shade since the surgery. And of course the problem of the Texas drought and the foundation and plants that suck all the moisture out of the soil and hoard it selfishly among themselves. All this to decide before spring. I feel like the care of my yard somehow is a reflection of me as a person so it has to be just right. How nice it would be to wake up one morning and someone made all the right choices for me and hocus pocus it is done. My children would say " Mom you are making a mountain out of a mole hill." "Just do it!" My own thoughts are to just move into another house that already has a beautiful yard and leave this to someone else. But then I walk out the front door and see my beautiful tree who has bravely survived multiple amputations and I know what I must do. Decisions will be made, landscapers will come, sharpen the shovel and get out the hoe its time to get to work. Bring it on Spring! I'll be ready for you! Besides that this house is almost paid for. I don't want to walk away now. "Uh, Honey, Kids, the motorcycle and the boats, what's your hold up?"
"Spring is almost here, get a move on!"
No comments:
Post a Comment