Appreciating Spring

There are downsides in Massachusetts. The winter is long and changeable-- mostly long. Springs are changeable. Fall is beautiful but cannot be depended on. Summers. Well, some years you might get rain all June. Some years you get drought so hard you're worried about water. Did I say changeable?

Springs are not as colorful here as other places I've lived. If you want a sweet spring, go to Missouri.

But I will say this about Massachusetts: no one appreciates spring like we do. When it does come and we cautiously poke our heads outside and finally figure out that blazing ball in the sky actually is the sun. Against all our better judgment, spring has come again. By God we celebrate. We sit on the porch and marvel. People run red lights not for the normal impatient reasons but just because they were so engrossed in the light they just missed.

The picture above is our apricot tree-- as likely a disappointment as love since we've never gotten an apricot from it. But it's in bloom, by God. Isn't it pretty.


This picture is from the plum espalier I've been working on. You might have to expand it to look at it. I'm not a great photographer but we get plums every year-- just long enough to appreciate them before they're taken by brown rot.

Isn't it lovely?




=========================================
Wall of Idiots
Massey Energy and here
Republican extremism and here and here
Southern Republican Leadership Conference
Teabonics
National Science Board
Glenn Beck

Links of Interest
SpaceX Falcon 9 Engine Test Finally Happens!
Hurricane wavemaker
Dark flow
How robots "think"
Large scale relativity test
Rube Goldberg
Testosterone really makes you stupid. Who knew?
Volcanoes of Venus
Virtual autopsy
V: Inside You
Gravity as an emergent property
V: Dice stop action
Christopher Conte
Pullman on Free Speech
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

DIY
Solar powered rain barrel watering system
Wine glass candle lamps
Hen haven
Recession lamp
Container city
Gutterless drain barrel
Paracord: Hanging chair, hand cuffs, survival bracelet, dog toy, bullwhip
Marsh plants and gray water
Scotch egg
Crystal nightlight
Repair CD/DVDs with vaseline
Nesting material dispenser
Mash tun
Wire wrap a feather 1, wire wrap a feather 2
Cheese aging cave
Wooden bed frame
Finger top
California cooler
Dryer lint fire starter