Spring?

There are promising and not-so promising signs of impending spring.
Saturday was 70 degrees. Gorgeous weather. I spent a big part of the day weasling up the ground under the live oak in the front yard and planting grass seed. I planted a bunch of johnny jump-up seeds, and a dozen hosta roots in the shady area in the back yard.

There's a bit less of that this year, what with the demise of the bradford pear in the ice storm. Too bad, that, but I'm not really all that big a fan of bradford pears, and now at least I have less shade to deal with.

Anyway, I had to shovel mounds of oak leaves out of the way to plant the hostas, and there were tons of ginormous earth worms in the soil underneath them. BIG fat worms that wriggled like snakes when you picked them up. I called Grayson out to see and hold them. I'm proud that he is not afraid of worms. A lot of kids are. I guess I was when I was a kid. But I taught Grayson from when he was a baby to love earth worms. So I dug holes and planted hostas and handed all the big worms to Grayson. He likes to get several of them and hold them at once and feel their strong squirming in the palm of his hand. I like them, too. They are so alive, so powerful and determined, and you can't even tell heads from tails until they make a break for it and start powering their way back into the earth. No matter how hard or packed or just impenetrable the soil is, they always find a way back in.

Sunday threatened rain all day, but it held off until the evening, when it hit like a freight train. Wind and rain and lightning striking straight down all around. The tornado sirens went off while Grayson was in the bath, and we had a moment there when we thought it might be coming our way, but it went south of us, and didn't turn into a real tornado until later.

So we know it's spring. Tornados. Rain. And worms. I saw the first blossoms budding out on forsythia branches around town this weekend, and just today I saw a couple of flowering trees bursting out in bloom. My neighbors' daffodils bloomed this weekend. Mine never bloom until much later because I'm on the south side of the street and my yard is always in the shade. Their south-facing plants are always way ahead of mine in the spring.

This morning, though... snow. Lots of it. Big white flakes coming down hard by 8:00 and it snowed for a good part of the morning. Nothing stuck, of course, because the ground was too warmed up. It was pretty, though. March snow. Always the prettiest, especially if it sticks around.

It's cold tonight,and windy as hell again, too. I'm ready for spring, but I know March always has to hit us a few more sucker punches before it gives over. I just hope we don't have another dreadful wet summer like we did last year. It was so depressing to wake up day after day in June to rain, rain, rain. I'm an Oklahoma girl, born and bred. I expect 100 degree days in June. I am accustomed to drought and fire warnings by July. You can't just pour that much water on me in summer and not expect damage. It hurt my soul, all that rain in summer. This year I hope it is better. Hot. Dry. The way summer is supposed to be.