The world awakening

Lucy and I pulled the mulch and stuff off the garden a bit yesterday. It looks rich and loose and ready and we got good and dirty poking around in the soil. We moved the garden to make room for the swing set last summer and now we are beginning to turn it into something new. It is a long rectangle of soil now, but oh, what will it be by summer?

Inside we poked through our seeds and found the ones that need to be planted soon. Peas. Carrots. Salad greens. We will work on planting those on Saturday. Lucy is impatient. "Can we turn over the earth, Mama? Can we make it ready for the seeds?" She pokes in the soil with fingers, sticks, the toes of her shoes. She misses her big sister who went to a farm for the week with her class from school and asks, "Will Ella be home in time to help us with the garden?" All in good time, all in good time.

But everywhere there are reminders that plants are ready to begin their Spring time work, that some have already begun their push toward the sun. We find reminders everywhere poking through the leaves. We enjoy the warmth of the sun on our faces. Tessa is eager to explore these new green things too. She touches the flowers and laughs. She knows they are good. She is happy to be outside hatless and to feel the breeze in her hair. She wants to know what we will do with those rattly paper packets, what is this mound of soil in the back yard? Soon little one. Soon. Spring is almost here.