Mixed blessings of spring

The beginning of Daylight Savings is not my favorite time, but it’s hard to complain for too long.  I mean, yes, getting up at what feels like 4:30 in the morning is not fun.  And the delightful daylight that was peeking over the horizon by the time I got to work in the morning was really starting to be pleasant and now I’m back to driving in the dark. 

On the other hand, it’s hard to complain about getting light in the evenings again.  Getting home and being able to go out and do much needed yard work is more than a little exciting.

Spring is full of mixed blessings, I guess.  Flowers are blooming!  Trees are budding!  There’s pollen flying everywhere and fitful allergies to prove it!

Now that we’re able to get into the storage closet, I’ve pulled out my work gloves and clippers and gone to town on different plants in our yard.  I spent somewhere between three and four hours out in the yard on Saturday.  Justin helped me get the major trimming done on the crape myrtle trees, but I went back and did a little more clean-up there to make them look more tidy. 

The pampas grass felt the sharp cut of my trimmers, but it fought back nearly as effectively.  That stuff is sharp!  By the time I got those plants down as low as I dared and filled up the trash can with all of last year’s growth, my arms looked like I’d lost a fight with a feral cat.  Add to that my allergies to grass.  I had long, red, puffy scratch marks all up and down my arms.  It was so bad that even aloe stung instead of being soothing.

I raked up much of last year’s leaves and trimmed the grass down to a uniform length and pulled weeds.  I found a spider with a thorax the size of the first part of my thumb and screamed like the scaredy-cat girl that I am.  I cleaned the old ashes from the fire pit.

I still need to move the bikes and get the leaves back there and behind the a/c unit, and now that I know how to trim the bushes at the back of the yard, I need to go back there with my clippers and give them some serious attention.

And that’s all just at the back of the house!  At the front, I need to pull leaves, trim bushes, re-mulch the garden, plant flowers, and pull weeds.  And the side yard will involve cutting down two trees that have a blight and need to be removed.

So by the time I quit last Saturday, the back yard looked a lot better, but I could barely move.  And I obviously have a lot more to do.  I’m enjoying myself, though.  It’s fun!  Okay, not the spider bit.  And not the pampas grass allergy bit.  But getting it all looking so nice and getting outside in the sun and the fresh air and feeling like I know what I’m doing and that I can make my house look fresh and pretty for spring?  That part is awesome.