Hey! What happened to my Spring?

Well, here in Baltimore Spring has sprung and gone. We went directly from cold weather sweaters to hot pants and flip flops in the last 3 weeks. With temperatures hovering just below 90 degrees at the end of March I’m not sure what to expect this summer. While I am certainly enjoying turning off the HVAC and tossing open the windows I am left feeling completely unprepared. I hadn’t yet switched my closet over to spring and now I’m going straight to summer! (I have a tiny, dark little close that requires me to make creative use of hangers, bins and shelves.) Worse yet; it’s too hot to wear shoes and my feet are in no conditions to be let out into the light yet. My friend and I are going for a pedicure after work so I can have some spring pruning done on my tootsies. And, yes, I know I should do it myself at home and save money, but…. I usually pamper myself once a year with a good professional pedicure and then I’ll do it myself from there. Oddly enough this usually takes place on Mother’s Day in preparation for the summer in May, not April! Fortunately I can perhaps even justify this (at least to myself) becuase I’ve saved up so much money by not using my credit cards or buying new clothes, etc for so long now. (I wonder if this rationalization will work on my husband too?) Anyway, I digress… The biggest issue at present for me though involves the garden and backyard.  In years past my husband and I had built a pump track and dirt jumps in our backyard so that we wouldn’t have to drive out to local trails to have some fun on our bikes; we could just ride at home.  Unfortunately this led to a permanently muddy kitcken floor thanks to my husband, dog, and daughter. Worse yet, the berms helped to collect water which I’m certain led to an increase in our burgeoning mosquito population.  Finally, as 30 soemthing adults it was generally frowned upon by our parents and others because we couldn’t hold a proper barbecue or patio dinner with such a mess in the back.  So… finally, now that we’ve decided to focus our moutain biking efforts on downhilling, we are flattening the back yard and putting in a real adult lawn and deck. (I do get to have a horseshoe pit, though which is pretty super). This means disassembeling wooden ramps, filling in some very large holes, removing rock supports and a whole lot of digging. We’ve felled a tree and are ready to rototill and pickup topsoil, then plant grass seed. Seed can really only be planted in the fall or spring and with the weather so hot we are really falling behind in getting this all done. If that weren’t enough we’ve got taxes, Easter and lots of family birthdays… and well, maybe some time to spend to ourselves doing other thigns like maybe eating, sleeping, or even saying hello to each other…sheesh!  To dig the hole even deeper, litteraly and figuratively, I it’s also time for the annual moving of the plants in my front yard and mulching. I landscaped my front lawn because it’s better for the environment and local wildlife for a variety of reasons, but it is also very draining on my personal scheudule and my pockets. I’ve even taken a vacation day from work trying to get caught up on my gardening nightmares and I’m still falling behind.  I’ve been shoveling, separating and transplanting all week. This weekend I’ll be digging, moving, mulching and weeding.  If you see me unconscious in the garden, I’m likely just exhausted and please feel free to revive me with coffee. Don’t even get me started on herb and vegetable gardening that needs to be started immediately… So far this entire year seems accelerated by the crazy climate in Baltimore and what I really want to know is, “Hey! What happened to my Spring!?!” Help…

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