Signs of Spring

There once was a spider named Fred,

Who filled clever Susie with dread,

She said Oh Em Gee!

His legs wiggled with glee,

Then in the shower he found himself dead.

               Here it is the beginning of April and the signs of Spring are few and far between.  We’ve been having cold weather and it seems like every other day we have snow falling.  There are a couple signs that the Earth is waking up after the long winter such as tulips starting to poke up through the cold ground and rotting leaves, the little bulge and some reddening on the tips of the lilac bush, and an errant spider in the shower as well as some tiny ants that found a little crack that needs to be grouted in the bathroom.  I could do without the last two for sure!  The spider joined me in the shower one very early morning and I dispatched him with the help of toilet paper and my fingers – ewwww!  The ants were a bit tougher, my daughter first dealt with them by spraying them with a bleach based shower cleaner, (why do we always notice these critters when we are in a vulnerable state of undress with limited weapons?), but they came back within hours.  So, I used good old Google to find a less caustic method of removing the little crawlers.  Among the solutions were: drawing a chalk line because the ants will not cross it, spraying with a lemon juice solution, and spraying with white vinegar.  Hmmm, I didn’t have the lemon juice solution ingredients, and the chalk line thing seemed a little amusing and I thought that maybe it would be good for not having ants contaminate a crime scene with a chalk outlined body but couldn’t see myself drawing a chalk line all around the top perimeter of my bathroom.  With my luck I’d have fallen off the ladder and injured myself.  I opted for the vinegar treatment and I am pleased to report that so far the ants have not come back after I sprayed their point of entry and all around the top of the room with it.  The only negative is that my house smelled like deli for a couple of days.  I’m keeping the spray bottle of vinegar in the bathroom for now in case once we actually have a few days of warm weather they decide to make a comeback.

I saw a robin in the tree,

He looked a bit confused to me,

Every branch was cold and white,

Not a tasty treat in sight,

The robin thought that it was Spring,

Isn’t he a silly thing?

               Yes, I did see a robin.  It was last Saturday during a storm in which we had over 6” of snow.  He did look a bit confused and our little suet feeder was empty.  I felt bad but I didn’t have another suet cake to put in it so he had to go find food somewhere else.  Sad. There would have been some bugs and seeds around if we were having a more typical spring.  I keep looking every day for the trees to begin forming buds, or the low brush along the road to have a tinge of green but so far no luck.  I just had a week off of work and had been hoping to do some Spring cleaning with the windows open and sun shining bright.  Most days were cold and either snowy, drizzly, and gloomy or just too cold, windy and overcast.  Disappointing, but there’s nothing I can do about it.  That’s what’s so frustrating about the weather—we can’t do a thing about it!  We just have to accept it and move on.  But if I could change it I sure would!