HERE COMES SUMMER!!


 
I love this time of year!  Spring makes me -  

joyful, and my thoughts are all stumbling and tumbling all over themselves- 

thoughts about buying this and moving that. . . 

days are longer. . . 

I pass by my gardens and see little green things poking their heads through the

soil that I forgot were there. . . 

and then I feel an excitement stirring inside of me to get my hands in the dirt 

and - 

let the spring cleaning begin.

At first it’s so much fun because every piece you clean up and prune and fluff makes such an - 

impression on the yard. 

I’m pretty sure I see the yard shift with pride.  Not so anyone else would notice.   

But I’m pretty sure it did. 

At first it feels easy and then one day I stand up and look out over the vast yard and realize there’s so much to hoe and dig and all that sleeping dirt to fluff so it resembles a  

Better Homes and Garden picture.   

And then I call my friend and say “I’ll come and pick you up and let’s go

nursery shopping for plants and yard art and  

I’ll be there in 10 minutes and  

no, you don’t need to put makeup on. 

Well, maybe just lipstick. 

And on the ride to the nursery we share ideas and we both get so excited we over talk each other - 

And then in all my excitement I invite friends over for dinner the following week and  

won’t it be fun walking them through the yard and listening to all their sighs and ooohs and aaahs about how beautiful everything looks and - 

who would have thought to put that there! 

As I dig and plant and water, my eyes wander up to the back deck where all my summer pillows have found their way down from the attic.   

I take a minute to go fluff and tuck and move this pillow over 2 more inches which totally made a huge difference in how it looks with that little bit of a move and slide another one back where it originally started. 

I know . . .

It’s such a process. 

And how am I going to get my favorite red and white striped sling chair out of the attic

because as I collected my pillows a few days earlier I was greeted with a swarm of bees that had made their home in the attic over the winter and raced me to the bottom of the stairs. (I won!)

And will my deck look the same without that chair?   

especially with company coming. 

And then as I headed back out to my garden at 7 am this morning (clearly I wasn’t thinking clearly to have a shovel in my hand at that hour on a Sat. morning) I decided

to take a deep breath  

and. . . 

made a plan for our guests arrival. 

I will only walk them through the parts of our yard that are proudly waiting to be part of the garden tour- and no one will notice the piles of rocks waiting to find a home in the landscape, or the bare spots that still need attention.  

I will distract them with a fancy table setting and even fancier food.   

Well, I don’t know about the fancy part. 

And now - 

I can’t wait for our guests to arrive.