“Daffodils are yellow trumpets of spring”
If this is a test of my sanity, I am on shaky ground. In Ghana there was a rainy season and a dry season. I knew what to expect and around when to expect it. My friends and I, during the dry season, would look at the sky and wonder if it was going to rain. That was a joke of sorts. We knew the rain wouldn’t come until April. The sun would beat down and dry everything until then. The ground became dust, blown and whirled by the winds from the desert, the harmattan winds. Our lips cracked from the dryness, but it wasn’t unexpected. We were ready for all that heat and no rain.
I haven’t seen the sun in days. The clouds are darker now, a bit more menacing. I need the sun. I want it to be so bright outside I have to squint my eyes. I want to stand on the deck and be warm. My patience is almost gone. I want to scream, “No more! No More!”
Today I have to go to the dump. Gracie would have loved the trip.
My laundry is back to its usual spot, leaning against the cellar door. My plan is to do it today before it grows and takes on a life of its own. That’s what happened the last time. Had I been a character in a Disney movie, my laundry would have been singing and dancing. I’m picturing a conga line of shirts followed by a line of pants doing the can can and singing a catchy tune as they make their way to the washing machine.
My house is nice and clean. Roseana and Lee came yesterday. My contribution was lifting my legs so Lee could vacuum under them. He even put all the trash and recycling bags into the trunk for today’s dump run. I also have a couple of other stops. I have streamlined my to do’s so I waste only a single day.
My garden doesn’t mind the gray days. It still grows. I check it every morning and every morning I notice more and more green shoots have been appearing in my front garden. I see daffodils joining the already blooming crocus or croci if we use Latin’s second declension masculine plural for words ending in us. I had four years of Latin in high school, a feat of no small dimension.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: harmattan, Laundry, Peace Corps Ghana, rainy season
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March 9, 2018 at 3:01 pm
Hi Kat,
I wish my blouses would conga and my pants would can-can themselves into the washing machine and then waltz on over to the dryer after which they’d merengue themselves back to their proper storage areas. Wouldn’t it be loverly? 🙂
The sun has peeked in and out a few times since yesterday afternoon. This morning looked promising but the clouds came in and ended that hope. I’ve even seen a few flakes floating around.
I cannot tell what green things are poking up since the ground is covered in snow. The day lilies were sticking up a bit but that was the last I saw of the ground.
Spring’s coming soon. Hang in there.
Enjoy the day.
March 9, 2018 at 3:13 pm
Hi Caryn,
I would so love my laundry if it were that talented. I’d add folding itself.
I haven’t yet moved off the couch except to get some animal crackers. I’m now rethinking my errand list. I want to be lazy and am pushing my list until tomorrow. Everything can wait, nothing is vital. It will save me too as I was going to stop for a donut.
Still no sun here. The clouds did get brighter but the sun was still hidden. I can see the day lilies. They are planted around the border of the grass by the space between my neighbor’s and mine. I am most thankful for no sun.
I can be patient but all I want is the sun. I don’t even care if it is cold out.
Have a great afternoon!
March 9, 2018 at 4:41 pm
Here things have been growing for awhile and allergy suffers like my spouse will suffer through May. As a result of the confluence of the winds Dallas might be the allergy capital of North America. Between mountain cedar, old growth oaks and only God knows what other pollens blow in from the great southern prairie it makes my wife feel terrible. 🙁
I’m convinced that everyplace has its positive and negative features. Here there’s no ocean nor mountains but good economic opportunities, mild climate and no State income tax. The Texas coast has hurricanes which cause huge floods. Hawaii has great weather but sky high housing costs and volcanos. Phoenix has dry hot summers and Florida has humid hot summers with occasional hurricanes thrown in for good measure. Obviously, the North has those murderous winters.
Today the sky is mostly clear and windy with highs in the 70s.
March 9, 2018 at 8:08 pm
Bob,
I had horrible allergic reactions during just about every season then I got allergy shots. They worked wonderfully-no allergic reactions in years.
Massachusetts has everything including the ocean, mountains, theaters, the wonderful walkable city of Boston, a high standard of living and all those universities. It does have cold winters and snow, expensive rentals and houses for sale, hurricanes and a crazy meal tax, but I really can’t imagine living anywhere else.
It was cold and raw today.
March 9, 2018 at 11:38 pm
They have promised sun for today and fog but I don’t believe it for a second. The fog should already have been here and it isn’t so why would I believe that we’ll get sun later 🙂 🙂 I guess I’m happy as long as we doesn’t get more snow.
I’ll do very little today as I did yesterday 🙂 I fell asleep several times in front of the tv yesterday but still had no problems falling asleep in the evening 🙂 I really need some sunshine now so I can get some energy from it 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
March 10, 2018 at 12:04 am
Christer,
I ended up doing nothing, not even my laundry. It was a cold, raw day so I stayed home. It is supposed to get better and maybe we’ll have sun tomorrow. I just don’t have the energy today. I too took a nap.
It was a quiet evening. I went through catalogs, read and watched Rogue One on Netfix. It was good.
Have a great Sunday!
March 10, 2018 at 12:15 am
I saw my first pair of robins today (robins are almost always in pairs).
The daffodils and forsythia bushes are blooming, and the Bradford pear trees have been blooming for a couple of weeks. It’s been a long cold lonely winter – but Spring is coming soon
March 10, 2018 at 12:23 am
Spaceman,
We have robins all year. They don’t migrate. We call them winter robins.
Only the crocus have bloomed. The rest of the bulb plants have greenery but no buds. But even seeing just the greenery gives me a feel of spring.
March 10, 2018 at 10:50 pm
The robins here go some place about October – a good question, where? I use them showing back up as a sign of Spring. Quite well mannered birds – they don’t fuss among them selves or make a bunch of noise. They love to bathe and get in the water sprinkler in the summer. If my grass is high and I cut it, they’ll come in shortly afterwards and hunt for bugs. Mockingbirds will also do that and they do winter over here. Mockingbirds are quite territorial and hardly ever see them in pairs. Durn house wrens have built a nest in my grill (again) – there’s a penetration on each side of the cover they go through. Meant to tape it over and forgot. So I guess I’ll let them do a first hatch before evicting the nest and start grilling again.
March 11, 2018 at 12:26 pm
Spaceman,
We do have robins that migrate, and I also hav no idea where they go. A good number of them stay around all year.
I don’t remember ever seeing a mockingbird. They mustn’t be around here. My feeders get mostly smaller birds. The chickadee is the most frequent visiting bird.
The squirrels use my grill and outdoor shower, The grill is easy to clear, but the outdoor shower is always a mess of pine cones and pieces of cones. They climb over the top of the shower stall with their treasures and just leave them.
I still haven’t found my grill cover.
March 11, 2018 at 10:23 pm
“The Case of the Missing Grill Cover”. Candidate for dinner mystery theater if you can link in a few murders. Anyone go missing in the same time frame?
No mockingbirds! That’s a loss. Mockingbirds have to the most interesting of all domestic song birds.
March 12, 2018 at 12:13 am
Spaceman,
I’m thinking that’s a perfect dinner mystery. Bodies are the east part.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a mockingbird.
March 12, 2018 at 10:57 am
That’s unfortunate on mockingbirds. As their name suggests, they copy other birds’ calls and make up some on their own. Something that seems flat out amazing to me. They like to perch at the very tops of trees or on another high point like on top of telephone poles, and carry on calling non-stop. Not unusual for them to rattle off 15, 20, 25 different calls in a row. As I said – very territorial and will chase away other mockingbirds in their immediate vicinity. So when you see them, it’s almost always in onesies. And they will also harass hawks to chase them out of the area. But they don’t bother other types of birds in the vicinity. Bug eaters so never at the feeder.
March 12, 2018 at 11:01 am
Spaceman,
Now I’m even sorrier that I don’t know mockingbirds!