Impatience

Our weather is beautiful considering it is only the beginning of February. Our days are in the mid to upper 60's. It is precisely this weather which makes me so impatient. I want to get outside in the garden and start planting; to feel the sun on my shoulders and the dirt on my hands again; to admire all of God's incredible creation.

But it is simply too early, so I am trying to to focus on perusing the garden seed catalogs and on planning. The "research" phase is not nearly as fun as the actual gardening, but it does seem to help bide the time. (HA !)

Yesterday during our lunchtime, the children were chattering about shorts and sandals; about working and playing in the garden; about swimming again. I just did not have the heart to tell them that this is a brief respite in our "winter", and that there are probably several cold snaps coming before it is truly spring again.

It seems our feelings for our gardens are not uncommon.

Nathaniel Hawthorne said, "I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green."