Most years, we don’t let things get so out of control as to need such equipment to tame the garden wilderness.

I hope it’s not arrogant of us to test the grand and natural scheme of things with our piddly little household and land chores.

We’re suckers for this season and she knows it.

Just when you think you’ve got something sorted out, a sudden yank of the rug beneath your feet and there you are, staring upward from your vantage point on the floor.

They sport mostly bunnies and bees, chickens, sunflowers and stripes in various designs from vintage to contemporary.

I chase ideas through the woods, listen for new and returning winged relatives tapping holes into dead trunks and wonder what will be asked of me today.

A handful of robins march in stop-and-start fits across the just-greening grass, stopping to turn a hidden ear to what might be crawling beneath.

What is it about the open space of a meadow or the secrets of a black swamp woods that shift our agendas over to a never-ending list of chores that are truly anything but?

Whatever I might have considered an inconvenience, even on the mild end of the scale, has evaporated.

Would anyone hear the grunting and giggling group as they wrestled a 4x4x6 post from the ground?

We’re all experimenting with what works to get us through a rough day, to not feel guilty about laughing or detaching ourselves if only for the afternoon.

It’s hard to say goodbye to someone when the ground is frozen and you weren’t prepared for the farewell.

I’ll be a happy soul, lost in the white drifts that will most likely seal the backdoor shut until April.

I will not decide that you are simply a failed version of me.

On one income, my parents somehow pulled together the resources to give us all a rich archive of summer memories.

Until a team of scientists takes a much deeper look into my own cerebral functionality, I’m pretty much on my own to figure it out.

If you’ve ever made soup, you know about the importance of layering the flavors.

Her smile wide and grateful, she tucked the heart in her pocket and promised to take good care of it.

In the absence of the additional stimuli that saturates the senses when gathering with family and friends, we’re making good use of the rich silence that enfolds us.