Happy spring! Today, though, is calendar spring. Real spring, warm and sunny and filled with color, hasn’t arrived yet. It will be a while. Today is chilly and cloudy. The early morning was foggy. This is sweatshirt weather, the time between winter and spring. 

When I was a kid, spring was my favorite season. The mornings were still chilly and crisp, but the air was different. It had a sweetness. In the bleak gardens in front of the houses on my walk to school shoots starting poking their heads above the ground. I watched them grow taller. I loved when the buds had a tinge of yellow. The trees started to wake up and had the tiniest bits of green at the ends of the branches. My winter coat was put away until the next year. Bundling just meant adding a sweater under my jacket. I played outside longer after school. I reveled in the stirrings of spring.

My yard and deck were cleared yesterday, a spring clean up. The morning songs of birds are getting louder. The dafs are taller and the buds more prominent. I keep hoping for warmer days. I want to ditch that sweatshirt.

The other night for dinner I had tabbouleh and hummus, foods I first ate in Ghana at one of the Lebanese restaurants of which there were many. I hadn’t ever heard of Lebanese foods before that. Every time I was in Accra I usually went to Talou’s, a restaurant near the Peace Corps office. The hummus was served on a flat plate with an edge. It was spread cross the plate. In the middle was sesame oil and on the hummus was a ring of hot pepper. I still love to eat it that way. 

I haven’t made anything in a long while. I used to bake. I also used to make foods from all over the world for an annual dinner with friends, foods like Chinese, Indian, Cajun and yes, African. They were all new dishes, the first time I ever made them. I liked the risk. I need to get back to that. 

The morning is cloudy. We still have a wind but a lesser wind. The high is predicted to be 43° which is a cape spring temperature, but tonight could be winter with a predicted low of 36°. I have a couple of errands today, and I still have a long to do list. Yesterday I crossed off cleaning the living room. I even polished the furniture. My inner sloth was screaming the whole time. 

My schedule this week is uke heavy starting with practice tonight. I have three concerts on each of the next three days. I’m going to miss my afternoon naps.

I had seven goldfinches at the thistle feeders this morning. I added a new thistle feeder the other day after I had noticed the goldfinch traffic. Now, both feeders need to be refilled. I’ll also fill the sunflower feeders. I’m finding I spend more money on creature food than on my groceries. 

My mother loved watching the birds. We used to tease her because she seemed to get mostly pigeons. We called them country pigeons. One time even a seagull dropped by for dinner. She used to hang the feeders from the middle of her clothes line to keep them from the squirrels, but her squirrels were agile acrobats, tight rope walkers. We used to watch them from the kitchen window as they balanced their way across the line to the feeders. My mother had a special garden in the corner of her backyard. You could see it from the kitchen windows. A statue of St. Francis held his hand out to hold seeds. She had planted flowers all around the statue. The garden was fenced. One time my dog Maggie found her way into the garden. My mother yelled. I had to go get Maggie and fix the fence. She was the biggest “bird” ever to grace my mother’s garden.

In keeping with the season, my new jigsaw puzzle has an Easter theme. It has chocolate rabbits, decorated eggs, peeps and a giant Easter basket. I work on it just about every night. I’m at the point where I feel triumphant when I find the right spot for a piece. Jigsaw puzzles are addictive.

My dogs are having their morning naps. Nala is on the couch while Henry is upstairs on my bed. They have become sloths, my fault I’m sure.