The Mountain Thymes

 Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson wrote the lyrics to "It's My Lazy Day."  ....Well, it must be the season No rhyme or no reason  I'm takin' it easy It's my lazy day.  When I got up this morning and knew I didn't need to go to town or get the mail or make a pie, I thought today was going to be my lazy day.  I showered but dressed in loose yoga pants and a loose warm pullover, did thirty minutes of lazy yin yoga, which consists of laying on the mat and holding the pose for three minutes before taking a different stretching pose.  I discovered yin, which is perfect for aging joints or soreness from overworking in the gardens and just before crawling under the covers at night, a few years ago.  After eating a hot oatmeal  breakfast ,  I made a cozy mug of tea and headed for the recliner to sit and watch the birds gather the sunflower feeder.  And there I sat enjoying the quiet.  I think I dreaded the freezing temperatures returning even though it is short te

 Temperatures behaved like a roller coaster these past five to six days dipping to twenty some nights.  Most of the houseplants stayed in the sunny windows day and night except for the cold hardy collards and arugula.  Those containers got moved up against the house on the covered porch and I put plastic and a large tablecloth over them.  Tonight should be in the mid-forties so everything stay out except the baby transplants I just did today.   It took me two days to vacuum over the weekend when I decided to move some furniture which started my going through magazines, keep...not keep, then vacuuming the recliner seats and sucking up only one of my favorite new socks.  It's that definite sound of an object quickly disappearing up the vacuum tube when you realize that sock is a goner. Decided not to cut the Miele vacuum bag open.  They are expensive and that's the last one until I order more from Amazon. They are very efficient bags trapping over 99% of harmful allergens hermeti

 In my head, spring has arrived................ The Carolina wrens agrees.  The pair built this tunnel nest in two days.  I've seen late winters that they build but abandon and other times the female lays her four to five eggs and sets on them through the bitter cold nights.  We can still see a snowstorm one day and seventy degrees the next, especially during March's transitioning from winter to spring.   A few weeks ago I started assembling my new raised gardens and thinking about where the gardens would receive the amount of sunlight certain plants require.  The heavy wine barrel gardens had been scattered around and needed to be moved back into the sunlight.  The only way I could moved them myself was to dig all the dirt out and put the dirt elsewhere.  So a few days ago I started shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow, moved closer to the raised gardens, and shoveled that soil into the new empty raised beds.  Once I emptied the barrel I could tip it on its side and carefully r