I Soothed My Soul in the Garden Today

I heard on the news last night that the temperature would be in the 50's today. I silently stored the information away and went to sleep. The weatherman is often wrong, as anyone can tell you. I did not want to get my hopes up. We have been having an unusually cold and long winter to this point. We had one day this January where the temperature broke 43 degrees. I do not count that one day as a typical January thaw. I put my head down on the pillow and fell asleep before any sheep could jump any fences in my head.

I knew it was going to be a good day, a beautiful day when the alarm woke me up this morning. The sun was pouring in my window, and even though it was closed, I could hear the birds busily chirping away outside. I rushed downstairs, the cats trailing behind in a dutiful posse. The first thing I did was check the back door thermometer. The weatherman had not been wrong on the news last night! It was already 47 degrees outside.

I rushed to feed the cats and take care of the morning chores. At exactly 9:00 a.m., I burst through the back door with my red rubber garden clogs on! It was not hard to find them since I keep them right by the back door 365 days a year. A gardener never knows when she will need to put those clogs on. I have swept snow off the back porch and taken the garbage out to the curb many times in those red rubber clogs.

Mind you, even with the sun shining brightly, most of my yard was still snow covered at 9:00 a.m. this morning. It did not stop me. I didn't even put my rubber gardening gloves on before I began grabbing fallen twigs and branches off the ground in my yard. I filled my yard waste garbage can half full with the tree debris, as I dragged it all over my yard. Some of the branches were still stuck in the snow, but I tugged until they came loose anyway.

When the twigs and branches were picked up to my satisfaction, I put on a pair of garden gloves and began cutting down leftover flower stalks and weeds from the fall. It took all of my will power not to start pruning the roses and shrubs. But I know it is too early-we could have some nasty frosts right through March. Mid February is no time to take any chances with beloved garden plants.

Then I spied the grapevine. It had gone mad last year and escaped the confines of the arbor I made for it. It was now growing up my neighbor's beloved tall pine tree and all along my fence. I tackled it for two hours, hacking and pulling at it from every angle. I ended up falling in the snow at least four times during this process. Grapevine likes to stay where it wants to. Nevertheless, I am happy to say that I have tamed it for another year. I am going to make grapevine wreaths with the enormous pile I have.

Those three hours outside today were heavenly for me. After reading this, some might conclude that I am a bit crazy to call three hours of yard work, "heavenly". It is not yard work to me. It is therapy! I only wish today's fluke temperature was here to stay. But the weatherman is predicting cold, winter weather again for tomorrow. That's OK. He might be wrong. Besides, today gave me a dose of deep, soul-soothing medicine that will help me get through until spring comes to stay!