Kathleen's Korner at TheStidhams.com

Signs of Springtime abound!

The red-flowering currants are blooming, bright crimson against the pale yellow walls of the house. This morning, the plum tree’s white blossoms have burst open, and on the drive toward town, through yards and forest and fields, ornamental plums and crabapples are exuberantly anticipating the vernal equinox.

Dogs are not happy that it’s cold and rainy today, but it is not as bad as earlier in the winter and late autumn when the rain blew into the house every time we opened the door.

Today is our 15th anniversary. Wish that all people who are so inclined could make their unions legal… Maybe someday, when our children are old enough, they will.

Actually, it’s our 15.5 anniversary of becoming a couple! I never could have imagined all the strange, scary, wild and wonderful years since then, and wouldn’t trade my life today with anyone’s.

Blessings abound!

In like a LION and out like … well, we’ll see.

It was fairly warm the last few days, a few sprinkles here and there, nothing to get excited about. And then THIS morning! Wind, wind, and more wind. The wind blew through the miniature canyon formed between our bedroom wall and the trees on the other side of the driveway.

The sun shone between the clouds, which thickened as the day wore on.

A bright yellow crocus is up in the planter outside the front door.

There are some garden beds ready to weed, others that are good enough as is.

And the wind blew.

A quick trip to school to take medicine to one child, another trip later in the day to have coffee with my paternal unit. Took along Lucky, who hadn’t seen their house since the tree fell on it… he went racing around and didn’t recognize Dad at first, barking at him threateningly as if to tell him to put the house back the was it’s supposed to be! Anthropomorphic? Perhaps, but his intent was clear.

And the wind blew.

The elder son had a banner weekend — on Saturday his team placed second in the regional middle school Knowledge Bowl, the other school team came in first; on Sunday the student orchestra had their second concert of the year (quite nice!).

The younger son is inspired to try some new art, after speaking with a talented and caring artist on Sunday. Margie Jackson created a lovely piece titled “Memories” for a SOGO fundraiser, and spent at least ten minutes talking to us about her process, and her growth as an artist. A link to her website is in the link section, please do check out her and her family’s work. Her kindness to a young boy fits well with what I see of her pieces.

Yes, almost here. The equinox is two weeks away. We have daffodils blooming, buds on the plum tree, the Japanese kerria, tulips, lilies and irises beginning to emerge… yes, soon it will be day longer than night, warm more than cold, growing more than dying. The trees look good, and I sprayed to protect the new growth from the deer. A simple recipe, but effective: garlic and chili peppers run through a blender with water (and to help it stick a couple of eggs) — strain out any chunks before you put it into a sprayer. Tastes nasty, smells worse, and protects the young shoots without making fruit inedible. Also works on rose bushes.

Have managed to get one wall of the office space cleared and most of the kitchen! In just one week. Feels good to make progress on the home front, though I know it’s not my forte. I can now get a bit of work done again, and spend some of the housework time on the living room and dining room.

Elder son has another concert this Sunday, apparently he will have a solo. That is always fun. He enjoys his music so much! He also made his audition tape for the All-State band, we’ll see how that goes. I really don’t know how he measures up to other 7th graders across the state, he’s certainly one of the top players in his grade locally!

Younger son is enjoying his violin class and even practices some at home as well. I think we will be considering lessons for him next year. If we can afford them…

Dogs are mostly healthy, though the new one has seizures sometimes. Usually they are small and infrequent, but a week ago he had a whole bunch of them in several hours, which was worrisome. They aren’t getting worse, and it’s been a week since I saw any. Old dog is grumpy as ever, but she does seem to be happier and more alert the last couple weeks. I think the warmer weather is helping.