Green Dayz

It's the reward that comes with all that rain.  Hard to appreciate it, though, until the sun starts shining and colors come alive, especially the brilliant greens. 

This is definitely an "alive" time around here, and yesterday's activity up and down the road as well as here on the Lovestead suggested that folks are back to living the good life around North Idaho.  

I saw cyclists. I saw runners.  I saw walkers. Heck, I even saw a man riding by on a horse, twirling a rope while his mount clipclopped on down the road about as fast as any walking horse I've ever seen.  

Would like to meet that cowboy and learn his secrets to setting that horse in automatic pilot while he sat relaxed in the saddle tending to his roping practice.  

By the time I blinked----well, maybe by the time I'd turned the lawnmower around---the two were already headed down North Kootenai Road about a quarter mile away.  

Hope I see them again. 

In the meantime, beauty has returned in abundance, and I have now mowed my entire lawn, 'cept for one strip down the north patch where there's a French drain and the surface is still very mucky. 

I actually mowed a section west of the barn (more like a hay field) in its entirety, but while finishing off a strip near the manure pile, the mower got stuck.

It's the second time that orange mower has been stuck in a week.  Last time its wheels spun when I pulled into a small patch behind my southwest flower bed. 

Thanks to Bill's purchase last year of a backup mower for the place, I avoided my usual loud outbursts of disgust and sky rocketing blood pressure.  

That day, I simply left the mower where it was and fired up the back up, which completed that day's mowing project.  I also watched carefully for any deceiving soft ground. 

When the mower got stuck yesterday, I had mowed all I was gonna mow, so it's still sitting there next to the manure pile, awaiting some dryer ground.  No point in forcing the issue.

Besides having a back-up mower to maintain my yard-work composure, I'm happy to report this morning that immediate shedding all clothing and jumping into the bath tub to wash hair and body after mowing seems to be the ticket.   No itches, at least so far----and two mowings down for the year. 

Fingers crossed and knock on wood.  Twould be nice to avoid the itch through the whole season this year. 

"The parade I barely noticed was beginning - is already halfway down the street."  I saw this line this morning while reading another blog, featuring a poem about May Day.

I concur with the poet.  Just like the cowboy and horse moving on down the road, the beauty of spring is so fleeting.  Blink, and those fruit tree blossoms have dropped from the tree and are strewn across the green, Meanwhile,  once majestic daffodils begin to wither and turn brown. 

We wait so long for spring, but it wastes no time moving on to the next thing.  Blossoms turn into tiny buds and the purples, blues and pinks of lupine replace daffodil gold. 

That lawn grass, looking so manicured one day, takes on a ragged appearance the next, and, of course, the dandEEElions quickly rebound. 

Beautiful and busy----that's the North Idaho spring we are enjoying as we try not to blink.

Happy Tuesday.