AH, SPRING!

Officially spring is just one week away and I can hear the curmudgeons among us mumbling, "Yeah and now we're just that much closer to summer." Bah-humbugging heat, humidity, mosquitoes, sunburns, weeds in gardens, grass to mow, and rows to hoe, I can't say that I'm totally out of their camp. Summer is my least favorite season mostly because it's just plain rude. You know, like the way its heat encroaches on spring and then extends itself too long in the fall. I suppose that's more a symptom of where I live so I'll curtail any thoughts of complaining because I'm happy to be in North Carolina and don't plan to more to Minnesota anytime soon.

With spring comes daylight saving time, called summer time in some parts of the world. The time change in the United States, sprang ahead four weeks earlier this year. Instead of the first Sunday in April, we adjusted our clocks on the second Sunday in March. The change in time tends to cause confusion and controversy. Parts of the state of Indiana held out until recently, now only two states don't participate, Hawaii and all of Arizona except for the Navajo nation. Daylight savings time was used year-round for 3 1/2 years during WWII. We are used to time adjustments of one hour, but in other locations in the world it has varied from 20 minutes to two hours.

As the first sign of spring, it's hard to beat crocuses. My glorious yellow ones popped up in January through the snow, the purple ones this week. Daffodils and jonquils poked up their pretty heads in mid-February. At the start of March our almond trees exploded in pretty pink blossoms with an echo just days later from their cousins, the peach trees. And now the white beauty of Bradford pear trees. Ah, spring!

While up here in the northern hemisphere, we're welcoming spring, Australia, the southern parts of Africa and South America are saying adios to summer in preparation for fall.

My first spring foray into the vegetable garden this week was bittersweet. We named it "Kesi's Garden" because it was our big multi-shades of brown Maine Coon's favorite place to be. She claimed the bird bath as her watering hole. On hot days she'd lie shaded from the sun under the broad plant leaves in the garden beds or in the shade rim of the tall trees on the northern side. She spent cooler days stretched out on one of the cement benches. She's now buried there. It's tough enough to lose an older pet who's become a member of the family, but I'm finding it's much tougher when they've just barely reached their prime. I can't even imagine the depths of grief a parent who loses a child must experience. I shed many tears this week when I transplanted the artichoke plants from the greenhouse into their permanent garden bed. Kesi cat with her strong will, big body, and even bigger personality and presence liked to be wherever I was either indoors or out. She'll never see another day, another season, another year. I miss her tremendously and feel like I always will. I'll be spending much time in her garden this season. I'm sure I'll feel her spirit and someday be able to smile instead of cry.