Who took my spring?
Loose Ends
Susan Nienow

I like my spring in March, but this year there was a conspiracy to give it to me and then take it back when I was busy enjoying it. In late February, we went north to visit family. It was definitely winter. When we got back to town, we had a few teaser days when I got out in the garden long enough to wonder why we are trying to grow grass instead of that winter menace chickweed.

Then our daughter came home from Congo for nearly a month. We dropped everything so we would be available to go to dinner, have a dinner, shop or whatever she needed whenever she needed it. Big mistake.

Part of my brain knew that she would not have changed much in the year she had been gone, but I ignored it. She came in like a tornado and left with the speed of hurricane winds. Home for three days, she left for a trip to the home office - necessary, I understand. But even when she came back, she didn't come home for three more days.

Then it was in for the night and out for the day, sometimes without being home when we were awake. Because we had put everything on hold while she was home, we got nothing done. I know better than to cancel everything in case our 100-mile an hour kid decided to stay home. But some lessons never stay learned.

I could easily have re-landscaped the yard, painted the great room and done my mending while I waited for her to show up. But the warm weather vanished by the day she returned to Africa.

We had a brief respite from winter in the middle of spring when we went to a destination wedding in a tropical setting. It was beautiful, and we had a great time, however, I am going to send every single person I know a list of places I would like to go for destination weddings. The young people seem to be stuck on the beach for a romantic destination. What about Prague or San Francisco? I'd love to see Iceland.

We came home to the reality that we were having a picnic at our house in just four days. I wanted to show off my flower beds that needed weeding before we left. I did get the worst of the weeds the day it drizzled. I did that instead of clean. So, of course, the day of the picnic it was 55 degrees and rained on the croquet set my other half had optimistically put up. My tennis match was cancelled. Where is my spring?

Then back up north to visit family for a few days. I had to pack jackets and socks and a raincoat, while at home it was sunny and mild. Great weather for working in the yard if we had been there. Now the weeds outnumber my flowers three to one, and the house still needs cleaning. Come back, spring.