This morning is emerald green with lemon yellow back lighting.The Maple trees along the road have burst out with new leaves, and my once sunny yard is now dappled with shade, and sparkling with dew drop diamonds. There is a constant rotation of birds to the feeding station. Several different types of woodpeckers, the jay, red-wing blackbird, wrens and grackles and starlings. The little hummingbird has already stopped by. Fuchsia Geraniums stand tall in their stump planter and masses of peonies are ready to burst open with giant frilled heads (I don’t know yet what colors they are).

I have been digging Hostas which are unfurling faster than I can move them. Yesterday I transplanted some roses to new beds under the tall Locust trees which will have their own blooms in June. The neglected Lilacs have opened. Soon I will cut them back and transplant some. I hope to add more colors. I need to get to my friends house to pick up Forsythia starts and a new Trumpet vine.

I don’t know if this site was planned carefully or if the builders just got lucky, but it seems that the house is situated just right. Where in the winter the streaming sunlight warmed the front of the house, now it is shaded from warming up too fast.The deep overhang of the roof provides some added shade from the more direct summer sun.

Every day as I walk the yard or mow the lawn I find something new. I am not exactly sure what is what -weed or flower. Is that a domestic grape or wild? Is that bramble a berry or wild rose? So much to discover as the summer goes on.

And out I go to work in the dirt until I am too tired and sore to do more. The other day as I sweated under the trees working up new beds, trying to get rid of weeds while leaving the dog tooth violets I wondered what in heavens name I thought I was doing.  Sure, it will beautify my lawn, but in the long run, what good was it? Then I realized I as playing. Like a child in a sandbox I was enjoying myself. The sun was warm, the air was clean, my ministrations caused me to stretch and pull, to get up and down, and to walk. The garden is my gym.

As I worked there the small poultry flock would come to see what I was uncovering. The dog and cat would pass by in there explorations or come to lay down nearby. The family passed by on their routes in and out. Neighbors waved from their cars or yards. The kids across the street could be heard as they yelled back and forth.

I was down on my knees hands deep in the earth and surrounded by life.