This morning is glorious. The sun is brighter and the blue sky deeper than yesterday’s. It is already 62˚and will get as high as 68˚. I’m figuring on some deck time in a bit. I’m got a good book I’m half-way through so I’ll sit in the quiet of the backyard and read. What a delightful day!

Yesterday I sliced my finger with the dog food top. It took four band-aids then one more. This morning I removed those band-aids. They were stuck to my finger. I yelped when I pulled them off then I ran for tissue paper to put around my finger. It is an ugly cut.

The other day I went for a short ride. I saw spring. I saw forsythias blooming. Most formed walls on the edges of gardens. Tulips and dafs were in groups by color. I went slowly so as not to miss the world around me. A couple of times I turned in somewhere to let the car behind me go in front. I didn’t want to be like a tourist. I rode around for close to an hour down cape then back up. Henry was glad to see me when I got home.

Speaking of Henry, he let me cut his nails the other day. He was quite patient and didn’t pull any of his paws back. I just cut the tips. He no longer tap dances.

My dance card for this weekend is empty. I could make a run to Agway’s for pet treats and maybe even some hearty garden flowers. I’m a sucker for flowers, but I’m thinking the deck is calling me, metaphorical.

When I was a kid, I loved spring. The mornings always smelled good. They were cool but the sort of cool that disappeared as the day went on. Everything was green but lots of different greens. The only layer left was my spring jacket and maybe a sweater underneath. My mother didn’t force me to wear a hat. I had hands instead of mittens. Sometimes I even skipped to school. I loved recess, but my favorite part of the day was walking home, hurrying home so I could have more time outside to play in the growing warmth of spring, much more time before supper.

The sun is amazingly bright. The sky is a deep blue which looks best between the thinner branches of the pine trees, the ones at the tops. Today will be spring weather on Cape Cod, a high of 57˚. I have a few errands so I’ll be heading out a bit later. It is a glorious day for errands.

My to-do list has a new name, one with no immediacy. I have been what my mother would have called a Whirling Dervish. I had no idea what she meant until I saw a movie, a James Bond movie, with Whirling Dervishes. The dance was amazing and beautiful. (Why I remembered where I had seen them is a mystery to me.) Well, back to the main event: my cleaning frenzy. I am pleased to say that I did clean yesterday, but I only dust mopped the stairs and the hall then I sat on the couch eating chocolate chip cookies. Well, the new list is now called “What I’m Thinking.” No time is attached.

When I was a kid, spring vacation was a long time in coming. Our last vacation had been in February, not such a great time vacation with the weather and all. Spring vacation was always in April. Sometimes we’d get wonderful weather, sunny and warm weather. Other times it was cold and windy, a replica of February vacation.

We were never in the house when it was warm in April. We rode our bikes all around because there was so much to see. The cattle on the dairy farm, the holsteins I found out later, were out all day. I remember watching them slog in the mud on the way to the field. The ground had been hard in winter.

If we were lucky, the zoo would be open. It didn’t cost anything. There was a bike rack right by the entrance. We’d walk on the paths around the cages. Many of the animals were out on a sunny day.

We’d stop for lunch. We usually packed one on sunny Saturdays. We knew they were days not to be wasted eating inside. After lunch we’d hit the road again. Sometimes it was hunting balls on the golf course and off the golf course and across the street. On good days we’d find a couple or even more. On bad days we’d wish we had a way to get the golf balls out of the water without getting wet. That never happened.

I remember riding to the next town and bicycling around the lake. The houses were so big and beautiful. They were the best I had seen ever in all my ten years or so. Most times we’d ride around until we came to traffic, cars coming around the rotary. We’d run with the smallest break in traffic. We always made it across even wheeling our bikes. The next leg of the ride was through the square of the town next to mine. That square had a diner, a great diner, the sort where you wanted to have breakfast all the time. It wasn’t long from there to home. We’d get home before supper and watch some TV. It was a perfect April vacation day.

Today we celebrate Earth Day. Cue the composting, recycling, repurposing, carpooling, thrifting, and metal straws to save the turtles. Protect our home.

( My usual musing is below the Earth Day songs)