Essence de Mai

Doesn’t that sound like a good name for a perfume?  Too bad God doesn’t put the ones he designs into bottles.  This one is available only in May, usually in the early morning or late evening hours.  The air is cool and the smell outdoors is like nothing else.  I just can’t get enough of [...]

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Song of Spring

Despite the warm weather, it’s gloomy and un-Springlike out my window this morning.  Rain is forecast for later and I just hope it holds off until after my kindergartner’s much-anticipated field trip to Ijams Nature Center is complete. I’m a big fan of four definite seasons, and I love something about all of them, but [...]

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Thoughts of Spring

Back in the dreadful heat of summer I promised that I would never complain about cold this winter.  And mostly I haven’t.  I have enjoyed being cold!  I love the snow and I hope we get some more.  I am in no way ready for winter to end. However, I do hate grey, depressing days [...]

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Morning Glory Musing

I wrote here about how sometimes weeds turn out to be flowers.  Morning glories exemplify this.  Their vines don’t look like much and could easily be mistaken for something you want to uproot quickly.  Indeed, they are considered invasive by many gardeners, being “volulnteer” plants that appear unasked and grow quickly, sometimes choking out the [...]

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Whose Judgment?

Here’s a column reprint from 2003, which I was inspired to run today by a Facebook post by my friend Amy Wilson (you can see her here) whom I have known since first grade.  She said:  “The difference between a flower and a weed is judgment.” It was a rare sunny day, and 9-year-old Jake, 2-year-old [...]

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April showers bring May flowers

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I’m gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion

I HATE POISON IVY.  I cannot seem to escape the stuff.  It encircled the backyard of our first house, right where I wanted to plant a border of daylilies.  I wore gloves and long sleeves when I tried to pull it up, and still ended up with welts all over my arms.  My nursing toddlers [...]

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Mysterious Wisteria

I love Springtime in a new house.  Every day is a discovery, as blooms appear, whether seeded by chance or some long-gone resident.  Just now I am basking in the beauty of wisteria.  I’m sure some people consider it invasive, but I’ve always wanted some.  And now I have it in spades.  The stuff is EVERYWHERE.   [...]

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