Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Hey Mother Nature! Who's Fooling Who?

Long, long ago there was a popular commercial that ended with the words "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!" The purpose of the commercial is irrelevant, but it came to mind yesterday. I was out working in the gardens, cleaning out the last of the leaf debris that had built up under the bushes. We've been here 5 years already, but this is the first fall we've had to rake. I told Larry last year we didn't need to plant anymore trees! Right now it seems just about right. In a few years the trees will be big enough to really add character to the yard. They will be beautiful in the spring, add shade in the summer and be gorgeous in the fall and then..... I'll be huffing and puffing, sweating and groaning, as I rake up the clutter and trying to capture it all in the leaf bins our recycling center has given us.

Oh well, that's projecting into the future. Back to yesterday. As I pulled back the matted piles of dead leaves in the garden I was surprised to see tips of green shoots poking through the soil. There were unmistakable signs of bulbs popping up! Even the chrysanthemums were sending out new shoots! What is this? It's December! What's up with my plants?

We had snow in October, but November was warmer than usual. It has actually been in the high 50's, lately. How optomistic of these plants to think that spring must be on the way!

I decided I want to be like my plants; ever optomistic that spring is right around the corner. The temperature will plummet to freezing tonight and will stay there for several days. It may rebound later and give me a taste of spring or I may be stuck with subzero temps. I know something my plants don't. It's ONLY December! The snows are coming. But when they do, I'm gonna look out from the comfort of my house and say....

Hey, Spring is just around the corner! The tulips told me so!

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