Spring

It's been in the seventies here and balmy. I've been outside mostly - when it's nice like this I sit on the back steps (they're stone and soak up the sun) and I watch the back yard. My dog tries to get me to come play with her, but it's too nice to just sit and relax in the sun.

My forsythia is about to bloom, and there are yellow and white narcissis blooming at the foot of the south wall. My neighbors planted asperagus the other day down by the river. But the judas tree is still bare, and winter can come back any minute.

March is a fragile spring, we can get frost until May here, so when it is warm I like to spend most of my time outside. (And now that I have a bike, it's even more fun!) My daughter and I took advantage of the dry weather to ride over the back roads and into the fields. The farmers are already shaking their heads and talking about a drought - it seems we've had a dry winter and the water tables are very low. Dust rises from the fields in great clouds when the tractors pass, and in the sunshine, it makes it look like late August here.