One of the joys of Spring is to watch the color come back into my world. The signs of Spring come to city and town alike. I have lived in both and there are always ways of seeing Spring’s return.

In the cities manicured yards with blooms surrounding or in the Ozarks we see green creeping in from all corners of our yards. The first to signal winter’s grip is weakening are the daffodils and narcissus, crocus and the like. They are so welcomed after a long cold winter.

After the early blossoms the brown yards begin their transformation to green again. The birds are stepping up their place in the new season finding a mate for the first time and looking for the best place to build their nest. Their music fills the air and I find reasons to go outside to enjoy their choruses. In the Ozarks we have an abundance of beautiful song-birds and it is well worth the expense of their feed and the work of keeping bird baths clean with fresh water.

This Spring I am having the flower beds cleaned and mulched. It is something I’ve always enjoyed doing but is getting harder to complete before the season gets ahead of me. Weeds have no mercy on old bones and little sympathy. Instead of centering on what I can’t do I’m counting the things I can do and the list comes out longer on the “can do” side. I shall enjoy the work being done and be rewarded until frost time in the Fall when the last blooms are done.

Now that I use flowers and leaves to make cards my attitude about weeds has changed considerably. Many have pretty blooms and leaves and they are appreciated for what they are. It is all in the eye of the beholder. I had a neighbor once who never worried about dandelions because she thought they were pretty. At the time I was wearing myself out digging them up and worried that her mature blooms would blow across the fence bringing more for me to dig the next year. I have since decided it’s better to enjoy their bright yellow blooms and quit worrying about the next time around. The neighbor of long ago has since died and every time I see a dandelion I think of her.

Life is so much nicer when we let go of the small stuff…………..

Essentially Esther