"The measure of your life is the amount of beauty and happiness
of which you are aware." ~ Agnes Martin
The earth is quietly opening up around here. Today I looked at the teeny buds on the lilac bush in the front yard, and on the apple and plum trees behind the house. Tentative first steps of the beauty that lies ahead. It's been a warmer than usual spring. Typically there should still be snow lingering, but it's been gone for a couple of weeks now. Even the grass is beginning to turn green, and the cats couldn't be happier. Their little mouths chomp down voraciously on the fresh chlorophyll until they eat too much and...we all know what happens when cats eat too much grass. I too have the spring fever and can't wait to don a new pair of garden gloves and begin peeling back the layers of mulch in the flower beds. I'm always pleased to see the fresh growth underneath. I silently congratulate the perennials for surviving another bitter winter. Like us locals, they too deserve a pat on the back for enduring another multi-month Saskatchewan deep freeze. As the cats roamed the perimeter, I sat in one of the dusty patio chairs hauled out from the garage and turned my face towards the sun (I wasn't even wearing a jacket!) grateful for another season of fresh, happy starts.
