Ah, Spring!

I know. I know. It is only early April and we could still get lots of snow and temperatures in the 20's. Pfffft! Yesterday, was a glorious day in Golden Valley- sunny and temperatures in the low 60's. I don't think we've seen that since the middle of October last year. Anyway, it was a great day to focus on springy things.

I started my day at about 6:30 a.m. with a fresh pot of coffee and acrylic craft paints. The unpainted birdhouses had been primed the night before and were just waiting for a bright coating of paint. But, first I got ambitious and added little shingles to one of them. (Word to the wise: don't invite me over to help shingle your home.) While the shingle adhesive was drying, I began to paint the other house. When I stepped back from it to take a look, the tropical colors I thought I had selected, made the birdie domicile look more like a Howard Johnson's for birds just passing through. *sigh* I let that nastiness dry, then got rid of the orange for some green. Work in progress.

Next, I ran some errands that included stopping at my all time favorite quilt shop, Colorful Quilts, in St. Paul, Best Buy to pick up some geek things for my computer and Rocco Altobelli for a snappy new do. All this and home shortly after noon. Fabulous.

In the afternoon, Curt and I did something we both loved- cleaning up the gardens. This basically involves taking down last seasons expired growth that we kept over the winter, without removing the mulch. Gardeners call these things "winter interest" because sometimes they look pretty in the winter standing up over the snow. Mostly I think we gardeners are just too damn depressed that the season is over to take this stuff down. Or we're lazy. Whatever the case, cleaning it up in the spring is fun because it renews our hope that spring really is coming and it also exposes some new growth that is already pushing up from the cold dirt. So, here is one of many lovely things that were under old foliage:

These little nubs will become this in about 6 weeks. Hooray! (click to enlarge for all it's beautiousness)
After three hours in which we got about 2/3 of the gardens done, we called it quits for the day. Curt suggested a Dairy Queen visit. I love him so. A couple of hours after DQ, I fired up the grill for the first time this year and put on some jazzed up red potatoes and two t-bone steaks (thanks, Dad!) and put some biscuits in the oven. We ate in front of the TV while we watched "La Vie En Rose." If you haven't seen it, do. Of course, the gays love Edith Piaf, just like we love all bigger than life, talented and tragic women who die before their time. It's true.
Then we were off to bed. Curt read 'Middlesex' while I read Quilting Arts magazine. Louis was curled up at the foot of the bed and Claire snored under the bench. A perfect spring day. Ahhhh.