I know, I know. People talk about relative humidity, but I am dealing with relative temperature. It was 42 F (5.5 C) when I went out to walk yesterday. I dressed as I would when it was the same temperature in January and February. The difference is that I shed my hat and windbreaker halfway through the walk. This morning I saw 42 again and wore one outer layer – a sweatshirt. Despite wind roaring along the ridge line, I was comfortable. Why is 42 not the same year round? Is my brain relatively warmer when it thinks it is Spring? Am I so eager for Spring to be real that I dress for it and expect the weather to follow?

I walked through the house and went straight out to do weeding. This time I attacked a small bed under the old oak tree, one that I had never touched since we moved here six years ago. Every year hostas and other shade-loving plants appeared magically. I noticed there were saplings, some three feet high, lording it over the hostas. The defining stones around the edges had begun to disappear under creeping weeds. The area looks somewhat better, but I must go back and remove lots of sticks. I am conjecturing that through the years, people who mowed the lawn threw offending sticks into the plants.

I should have focused my eyes on the ground and come straight back in the house. No, I stopped to admire the area I weeded yesterday and got sucked in. There was a sapling that would come out easily after yesterday’s rain. Next to it was a bunch of yarrow. The yarrow was not as willing to come out of the earth. Those plants had to be persuaded with the sharp jab of a weed digger and a firm tug with my hand. Maybe I should follow neighbor Joyce’s lead and let the yarrow have an area of its own. Do any of you have an opinion of yarrow?

A few weeds at the edge of the iris bed beckoned when I saw the first bloom of the year. After dispatching the weeds, I took a photo of the iris to send to SIL Beth and grandson Nathaniel. The two of them dug up the non-performing plants and put them back almost on top of the ground. This bloom and other buds are saying thank you nicely now. I love it when plants are properly appreciative.