The transition from winter into spring never ceases to amaze me…last week we were in the depths of winter, today we awoke to the pitter patter of rain.  At first I felt disoriented by the sound, wondering if our bathroom toilet was flooding.  (Not the first time that has happened!)  But then my eyes focused on the spruce tips outside my window, dripping big fat drops from the greenish gray tips.  Even a dark, wet morning is welcome at this time of year if it means rain is washing the snow away.  And right on cue, the snowdrops and crocuses pushed up through the muddy snow and decaying leaves to welcome Spring.

As I get older and more domesticated, I fully feel the urge to spring clean.  It is kind of ironic because as a child myself, my version of cleaning meant sweeping everything under my bed and into my closet.  It drove my mother crazy and now here I am, finding great satisfaction in loading up the garbage bags full of unnecessary stuff pillaged from the nooks and crannies of our home, and seeing that everything has a place all its own.  (It is no small surprise that all three of my kids also find the ol’ sweep under the bed trick mighty handy when mama is on a cleaning purge.)  With the snow receding, I am relishing in the tidying I am doing around the house outdoors.  There is too much deep snow down in the animal pens and gardens, but the mess around the house is real, on account of our three dogs.  While the kids have resurrected fairy gardens and resumed their apothecary experiments with snow and mud, I have been pruning and imagining where new flower beds will go.  Josh thinks I’m a little nuts to expand our gardens, even if they are small expansions.  Well, there is happiness in my madness, I’d say.  Just thinking of all the new flowers I’ll be making into bouquets makes me giddy at this time of year.

In the past few years, Sunshine has taken over the duties of household decorator.  She discovered some old tissue paper on my art cupboard purging, and immediately set to work on some window transparencies.  I was so inspired by her creativity, I made one myself.   In no time at all, we have pretty window decorations that pick up the light shining through them so much better than the photo suggests.  Sunshine also declared that because it was now Spring, it was okay to begin making our smoothies again.  (These are low carb smoothies made not with bananas but chia seeds instead….so delcious you’d never know they were sugar-free).  While I don’t bake that much anymore, Sunshine, Huckley and I did make up some sugar-free sugar cookies from here.  They pass the test in flying pastel colours.

A highlight for us has been our visit to our good friend’s and neighbour’s farm to see their spring lambs.  Oh my gosh, honestly, little lambs are the sweetest creatures of the animal kingdom.  We didn’t breed our sheep last fall as we thought we were doing our cross-Canada bus trip this summer, but we’ve had to postpone a year on account of finances, or lack thereof.  The most difficult part of this was that we didn’t breed my ewes and so no lambs right now.  Luckily, Bernie and Sabbian live across the road and we are filling up on baby woolly goodness.

Josh has just one more week of guiding in the mountains and then he will teach a two week course to first year guides.  By mid-April we will have him home again and we can begin our farming season in earnest.  The truth be told, the honey-do lists I am compiling have him a little weary already.  He has reminded me a few times that he will only have a week at home before he gets back to the house he is building for a friend.

We all feel the quickening beginning, around us and inside of us.  After many long winter months of feeling curled up and quiet, it feels so satisfying to stretch in new directions again.  Wishing you a gentle beginning to the busy spring season.

xo Jules