Happily Ever After

Spring has finally arrived in our garden. As always, the hyacinths, scilla, daffodils, and species tulips are the first to open. The magnolia is full of beautiful pink/violet buds, and the garlic is huge. I had lavender planted by the door, so when we go in and out, we could enjoy the scent of lavender (one of my favorites). Since the garlic grows much more abundantly than the two lavender plants I put in, the smell of the garlic always beats the lavender scent. Since I love the smell of garlic, walking in and out of my house just makes me hungry—no invigorating lavender for me! I am SO excited this year for my lilies to come up. I still have a couple of months before I’ll get to see any flowers, but I’m eagerly checking the garden to watch their progress. The roses are leafing out but no buds yet. I think we have enough color in the garden now that L can take down the big Obama sign she put up in the contorted filbert tree.

We have so many outdoor spring projects that we need to get done, but I don’t know how or when I will have the time to work outside. The animals, homeschooling, and my inside chores now take up all of my time. I am trying not to panic and the thought of the chaos that will make up my yard and gardens this year, if I can’t come up with about 10 extra hours per week (at the bare minimum!)—there has to be a way. M has been plugging away at the spring cleanup, which is a huge task. I have to get seeds sown, build a coldframe for three-season greens (which will hopefully help shrink our exorbitant produce expense) for our herbivores, put up the solar path lights, hang the patio ‘mood lighting’, find a place to start composting that our dogs cannot get to (because they eat all compost & compost-like things), select a location and draw up plans for the outdoor cat enclosure, move and redo the rock garden (and add a scree garden), redo the big front garden (I have a very ambitious plan, but maybe not do-able this year), and of course…endless weeding. The weeds are already threatening to take over certain beds. I've freaked myself out now, so I have to stop thinking about the garden!


We are working on socializing and integrating the twins. I let them out while we're home, so they can explore territory other than their room. They are really intrigued with L's room, which is where they stayed on the weekends when they were kittens. I wonder if they remember the room or are picking up their old smells. I just hate the whole socialization and exploration period so much! I can see the fear in every twitching muscle in their bodies, but despite their fear, their curiosity pushes them. I know they will get through it and eventually feel comfortable, confident, and safe here, but it makes me physically sick to watch them struggle. I also get very annoyed with my spoiled pampered cats being rude and naughty to the newcomers. They should remember how they felt when they were the newcomers and try to be more kind and hospitable. They don't remotely care what I think, however, so I will continue to run around like a crazy woman, to try to supervise every single interaction, so there are no negative encounters (all the while, knowing that no matter how much I try, I really can't do much to change things). My poor giant kittens!