It's April. Nice to be out of March, finally. April is when serious anticipation of gardening opportunities kick in. Once all the snow and ice has completely melted away, clean-up time will present itself. Warmer days, finally, when the earthy odour of the soil being disturbed by rakes floods our consciousness with its warmth and promise of a new season. By then the bulbs will have begun poking their green and red shoots out of the frost-free soil.

First off, clean-up...all the detritus that has fallen mostly from the trees, with twigs and old foliage littering  the ground and parts of perennials waiting to be cut back even further. Most of the garden clean-up is done in the fall, but spring brings its own period of putting things in order. I have plans ... doesn't everyone? I brought some some seed packets when last we were out shopping. They'll eventually go into the warmed soil and with them will arise expectations.

 

It isn't,though, thoughts of late spring, flowering bulbs and tidying up the garden that consumes my mind at the moment. It's the household spring cleaning I'm newly grappling with. Not by actually physically starting any of the cupboard cleaning activities, just musing ... thinking about it. When to start.  Taking down the sheers in our bedroom, the family room, dining room, living room and washing them.

Replacing winter clothing with summer stuff and washing things in preparation for laying them away. Making order in places where clutter prevails. All in good time. And that's about what it will take; a good amount of time in my already-busy ordinary household cleaning schedule. I had planned to start today by cleaning out two bathroom vanity cupboards. Planned, not executed. It takes time, where's the time on a Saturday when you want to just rest and that's that.

Well, I did wash Jackie's and Jillie's winter halters and their heavy winter jackets. They won't be needing them any more this season. They haven't worn them in almost a month, when substitutes seemed more than adequate with mostly above-freezing temperatures. 

Jackie and Jillie took us out early this afternoon for a hike through the forest trails. Yesterday's foray through the trails wasn't as pleasant as we anticipated because there was a cutting wind and it felt as though we were back in the deep-freeze of January under deeply clouded skies. Today the sun was shining and though the temperature was similar to yesterday's the wind was nowhere near as insistent.

Each succeeding day more of the forest floor absent of snow and ice is revealed. But for one area, the entire network of woodland trails benefited from a milder evening where the temperature stayed just on the cusp of freezing. The ice is far more forgiving now, our cleats biting deeply into areas given over to slush. One young woman wearing rubber boots walking a large hound mix was trepidatiously making her way along off the main trail in a slight descent. I offered her a hand which must have seemed strange to her; a reversal of age roles as it were.

We saw, in fact, few others out on the trails. Their condition at this time of year tends to keep most people unaccustomed to tramping the trails in all seasons, stay clear of them. Which resulted for us in a tranquil, much-appreciated hour-and-a-half of rarely-interrupted appreciation of nature in transition from winter sleep to spring awakening.