Today is lovely but chilly, April chilly which always makes me hope for a warmer day. The sun is bright, and the sky is a light blue, almost pastel in parts. My front garden is abloom. There are yellow dafs and a small deep purple hyacinth, all so beautiful and so welcome with their colors. Another hyacinth, one with a light purple bud, is close to blooming. I can see the yellow buds on my forsythia bush.

Mother Nature is working some magic in the garden, but I wish for warmer days, for more of spring. This morning was 34˚. Tonight too will be in the 30’s. Last week I bought a new bird feeder for mixed seeds, but when I found no seeds in the deck barrel, I went to Agway. Big mistake! I watched the baby chicks and cuddled a couple. My favorites were black, and they had the beginnings of feathers on their wings. I bought treats for Henry and the cats. I bought four small succulents to fill empty pots. I also bought a new sunflower bird feeder. Finally, I bought a bag of mixed seed.

When I was a kid, I remember Sunday rides on back roads. I remember how excited we got when we’d see horses in fields their heads bent to the grass. We’d tell my father to slow down so we could watch the horses eat. But we saved our loudest yells for when we sometimes saw deer in open fields. We all pointed and yelled, and the deer raised their heads. Sometimes we might have scared them away with our exuberance. I remember watching skunks waddle through the backyard all of us keeping our distance. The spawns were too common to deserve our notice. I think that was it for my wild animal count when I was a kid.

When I first got to Ghana and off the bus at the school where we’d be staying for the first couple of weeks, I saw lizards scurrying in front of me as I walked. I was amazed. I was really in Africa. My favorite lizards, who thought I’d ever say that, were the ones with orange heads and blue-green bodies. Lizards were all over the place so after a while I stopped noticing. I never stopped noticing the vultures. Then there were the baboons.

Here I see wild turkeys all the time, but I still watch. I’ve seen deer, one even almost hit the car, foxes, skunks, rabbits, old and young, with white tails, raccoons, the deer mice who have lived in my house, possums and coyotes. I think that’s the list. One time, though, the cape had a bear who was lost. He was caught and released in the western part of the state where he could find some friends.

I’m staying home today. I do have to go out tomorrow which makes four times this week. I’m staggered by that number.

Yesterday I beat the rain. I emptied my car at the dump, went to the bank and got pet food at Agway. The rain started late in the afternoon after I was home. It was a heavy rain, a loud on the roof for a while rain. I don’t remember when it stopped. I didn’t notice.

Today has leftover weather. It is chilly and rain is again predicted. The Red Sox opening day game for today is postponed until tomorrow. I’ll put away my peanuts and popcorn until then.

When I was a little kid, dressing us for outside this time of year was a conundrum for my mother. She wondered if the chill was cold enough for us to need a winter coat or were layers better. I favored ditching the winter coat for layers, for a sweater under my spring jacket. I never got cold, or at least that’s what I told my mother.

When I was really little, my mother shopped for my new Easter clothes. I didn’t have a whole lot of say. Every year I wore a dress worthy of swirling, a round hat with a small brim, white short gloves and a light jacket, a dressy jacket. I remember one jacket was deep blue and had a white collar and white buttons. My socks were white with lace, and I always wore black patent leather shoes. I think that outfit was universal, an unwritten Easter clothes’ rule all mothers knew.

The spawn of Satan has chewed another light set. That makes it spawns 2 and me nothing. Those lights have been hung there by the door and down the railing for over a year and were untouched until the last couple of weeks. I’m undecided about adding any more lights, but it is just so dark without them. I’ll have to buy cheap lights by the gross.

My dance card is empty and has been for months. Henry stays upstairs, his way of ignoring me. Jack sleeps. He is, after all, a cat. Gwen stay upstairs but comes out for me when I visit her. She gets treats. I have to go out today for the third day in a row. I think it is a new record.