Spring Has Sprung!

I woke up this morning to Mum telling me that spring had sprung at long last. Needless to say, I didn't really believe her. After all, I'd spent the night before in the drizzling rain and gone to bed throughly chilled, hadn't I?

But staying in bed wasn't an option, because Harrison and Lance were coming over in the afternoon. When I got upstairs, I was over-joyed to see sunlight streaming in our southern windows. The Lord is good! He didn't want us to use those Noah lessons we'd been having with all the rain the week before. But just in case, Harrison had told me that he'd learned how to make a raft out of sticks and limbs the night before. We were covered if the sun decided to become a secret agent again. That is the pussy-willows found a little down the lane from my house. Actually, I took it a few days ago, and shall soon be expecting it to burst into green leaves. Here is one of the raspberry stems, beginning to bud out. Some of them are taller than me now, and all of them are covered in these wonderful, new green leaves. All popping out in beautiful colour. I love raspberries...

This is my King's Crown plant. I'm immensely proud of it. About eight years ago, I was visiting a friend and she showed me this plant. Hers was dying and she informed me that almost no one could get them to grow in Alaska. I was determined to try, because I was intrigued by the uniqueness of this plant. So she gave me a cutting, and my little patch continues to come back every spring, and usually doubles every year. These are about two inches tall now, and by the end of summer, I hope they'll be about eight or nine.

What joy is mine!