The Gospel According to Mom

  

         (Composed on Thursday, March 28, 2013)

            Yesterday we experienced sunshine and a temperature above 40° for the first time this year.  We are enjoying more of the same today, but I should probably add that the high temperature is not going to be flirting with 50°.  Maybe tomorrow.   (So far this spring, it's always been tomorrow, if not next week.)

            As Mom pointed out in one of her letters nine years ago, the weather can have a marked effect on a person's attitude and outlook.  But then you just have to push yourself through it.

(1/27/2004)  Will this weather ever end?  I'm getting tired of it.

(2/3/2004)  This extended weather is getting me down.   I'm lazy these days & don't accomplish much.  Dusted downstairs today & that's about all plus meals.

       (2/7/2004)  This A.M. as I was doing breakfast dishes & looking out the window, it was snowing & dark & I thought how much longer can I endure this weather.  Then I got dressed, made my bed, came downstairs & started dinner rolls.  After awhile, so the dough could rise, I made a coffee cake & my dark period was over.  Baking is one thing I love & I was at peace with the snow.

Research and writing appear to be my therapy, although I have to admit that when the sun started shining yesterday, I spent an hour doing a series of chores I'd been itching to get at. 

Sweeping the driveway.  I removed enough dirt and grit to fill a small garden pot.

Sweeping the garage floor.  Again, it's amazing how much dirt and grit collects during the winter months.

Sweeping the patio blocks at the front of the house.  (Once I got that broom in hand, I just couldn't let go.)  Here I had to work around the remaining snow that had been pushed away from the entrance.

Ordinarily, picking up sticks would also be included on this list, but we entered a new era at 1720 Mayflower Drive.  With one of our silver maples out of the picture and the other one severely trimmed, there's not much to pick up.  And what's there is lodged in frozen snow.   I'm also looking forward to fewer "Grape-nuts" and "helicopters" during the next two months.  (Maybe three if we don't get an April warm-up.)   

Our neighborhood, which had been farmland until the mid-1950s, has an abundance of silver maples.   The arborist who we hired last summer estimated that the trees in our back yard were somewhere around 80 years old, the two trees along the terrace both 60 or so.  I suppose they were chosen, both by farmers and city planners, because they are among the fastest-growing trees.  But as gardenguides.com notes, ...silver maples are so delicate that a strong wind, rain or snow can damage the trees and litter the ground with broken branches.

Yes, thank you, we're familiar with this outcome.