Please read this...Spring time in Southern Illinois. . .
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<p class="p1">Spring time. An early morning chill. Sunshine. A warm breeze. The chill is quickly forgotten.</p><p class="p1">Seems like there was snow on the ground just a few weeks ago. Oh, that's right. There was snow on the ground just a few weeks ago. Well, maybe a month ago.</p><p class="p1">A cup of hot coffee out on the front porch. Not much stirring in the neighborhood. Cardinals call back and forth. I think they are grateful that the cold of winter is gone.</p><p class="p1">Keep hoping to hear a bluebird's trill. Then we can take the stick out of the entrance to the bluebird house in the back yard. The stick keeps out interlopers. Chickadees. Sparrows. Starlings. Wrens.</p><p class="p1">The Other Half saw on Facebook Saturday that somebody near Metropolis had spotted their hummingbird of the season. Wow. Technology really is for the birds. Sunday evening. I spot our first hummingbird of the season while perched on the front porch. I was perched. Not the bird. I do not do Facebook. Nobody else knew about our hummingbird.</p><p class="p1">The sweet gum tree in our front yard is showing buds. This tree always seem to be one of the last on our street to lose its colorful leaves in the fall. And one of the last to show new leaves in the spring.</p><p class="p1">Our sweet gum came home from school one day. We planted it close to where a maple tree had been growing. The maple tree died. A slow death. No sign of it remains.</p><p class="p1">Lots of folks don't seem to like sweet gum trees. Those darn gum balls. We figure that nature was here first. And, what the heck – one of the kids brought the tree home. </p><p class="p1">The red bud tree in our back yard is in full bloom. The tree came from Lexington, Kentucky. Twenty years ago? Can't remember. Seeing the tree in bloom this year seems to be particularly nice, especially after the winter that we had.</p><p class="p1">The little apple tree around the corner was showing some blossoms. The tree doesn't produce a lot of apples. Don't even know what kind of apple tree it might be. The apples are really good, though. Baked. With a little bit of butter. And cinnamon.</p><p class="p1">Daffodils are blooming. All kinds of them. As the first batch fades away, another follows.</p><p class="p1">Tulips are blooming, too. Bright red. Bright yellow. The colors of warm. The flowers won't last long. They don't have to.</p><p class="p1">The Other Half has been busy in the garden. Potatoes. Different colors. I didn't know there were so many different colors of potatoes. The purple ones taste, well, they taste purple. </p><p class="p1">Onions, too. Cabbage. Lettuce. Brussels sprouts. Yes, Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts are like sweet gum trees. Some folks don't like them. We do.</p><p class="p1">Fresh cut grass. Our fresh cut grass. The good news: our lawn mower started. Once again. The bad news: yup. The lawn mower started. Once again.</p><p class="p1">Cleaning the weed trimmer. Hope we can get one more season out of it.</p><p class="p1">Baseball. The Cardinals start a new season. Cubs, too. Here's a little tidbit from USA TODAY'S Sports Weekly publication: </p><p class="p1">"No St. Louis youngster born since 1902 has reached 25 without a World Series parade. The last time a Cubs team won a World Series, a 25-year-old enjoying it would have been born in ... 1882." </p><p class="p1">And there was this little gem written by Bernie Miklasz, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:</p><p class="p1">"In their existence the Cardinals have won 11 World Series – most recently during the first Barack Obama administration – and 129 postseason games.</p><p class="p1">"The Cubs have won two World Series – most recently during the Theodore Roosevelt administration – and 28 postseason contests."</p><p class="p1">I'm just sayin'. Good thing that spring is the season when hope springs eternal.</p><p class="p1">Spring time. Enjoy.</p><p class="p1">By the way – this is National Library Week. Pay a visit to your library. Read a good book. Maybe you can find one about spring.</p><p class="p1">One more thing before we finish this week. The Other Half and yours truly paid what will probably be our last visit to Weaver's Country Market in suburban Mt. Pleasant one morning during the past week.</p><p class="p1">The market, sadly, is going out of business. Seems that the bottom line was, well, the bottom line. We are grateful for having been able to do business with the fine folks at Weaver's. We'll miss the market.</p>