Opening Day
Today is my favorite day of the year. Not hyperbole. My absolute favorite.
Today is the day when I take all the plastic off the windows and open the house up for the season. It's not trivial, this day. It is the beginning of something new. I'm old enough that birthdays have little appeal and holidays have logistical complications and oh so many dishes. Opening day is different. The day of the week and calendar day change from year to year. You can guess and see it coming, naturally. You can spring clean a bit beforehand and there is probably a day a couple weeks prior that definitely felt like spring. But when it arrives... Well, I could wax philosophically about it for many paragraphs but I'll save you from it. My friend Kenneth Graham does a much finer job in the opening of The Wind in the Willows. Suffice it to say, I am elated.
As far as fine favorite days, oh, it was a glorious one. There were birds chirping. Soft misty rain midday. Not only was it warm enough to be outside, I was lounging around in a t-shirt. I asked Tim a few days back take a vacation day and spend it with me working on the house. I could not have chosen a better day.
I still have dirt under my fingernails.
Today:
- Raised bed #2 and #3 were put in place and the lion's share of debris from last summer's lawn cuttings has been spread out into the bottoms. We are still going to need to purchase a substantial amount of top soil, but thankfully not as much as I feared.
- We built a new cage for our future composting, so the pile in the middle of the yard can be a thing of the past.
- I transplanted the spinach sprouts that had come to life in the coffee filter into a bed under the maple tree. My first outdoor planting of the year. They are so tiny. They are practically invisible. Farmers almanac says I will have spinach to eat in about 5 weeks. I'm really not sure how that could be possible.
- I put up another, rather silly, bird bath in the shape of a tea cup.
- I thinned the seedlings down to one per pod; something that always feels so gruesome.
- We seeded the lawn.
Work on the inside of the house continues as well. We took a chunk of afternoon to look at flooring options for the front half of the kitchen. As I type this, Tim is plastering the new doorway. I'm not sure how he is doing it, I am absolutely exhausted. I have this satisfied weariness deep in my muscles. It was a good day in the Patch. The best day. My favorite day. Opening day.
