I skipped the pool today, and now I am swimming in time. I’ve got a full hour and a quarter more than I would have had, had I stuck to the plan of swimming laps this morning. I had my swim bag packed and my swimsuit on. I really truly was planning to go. But as I padded around the house in warm, dry sweats and slippers, the thought of getting in water gave me the shivers. If I didn’t go, I could blog instead…

Spring is coming. I walked yesterday evening and saw the leaves of daffodils peek through the soil in a garden bed. When I crested the hill to home, I cut across our lawn to check the patch under the tree where I’ve planted snowdrops and daffodils over the years. Sure enough, there were the white nods of snowdrops, and about 1 inch of daffodil leaves poking through. In only three days, it will be March. Soon after that, garden season will begin.

Over the years, I’ve built a substantial butterfly garden. It is one of the great joys of my life when I have the time to tend to it. I’ve replaced large swaths of grass with flower beds (2016, 2018, 2021). The garden has grown so large, the beds require two truckloads of mulch. Each spring, I take a weeklong gardening vacation to spread it.

This year’s garden season will be glorious for me. I will be on sabbatical. One of the perks of working at Automattic is a 2-3 month paid sabbatical every 5 years, and mine will begin April 14. I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. I’ve worked a cumulative of about 9 years at the company, and I am so grateful for this gift. I feel like one of the luckiest people alive.

I will spend the first week of my time off almost exclusively in the garden. I will cut back perennials and grasses, prune roses, mulch, and fertilize. That will take about five days. My reward after doing all of that, as it is every year, will be to go to the nursery and see what early plants are out and ready for me to buy. I will be craving green and flowers after six months of a brown and grey landscape. I will be (already am) antsy to put green in the ground.

This spring, even after that first week, I will have time to give the garden my full attention. It’s suffered the past couple of years. I’ve been too spent to give it time in the evenings after work, or we traveled on weekends and I had no energy to tend to it on the weekends we were home. This year I can spend full days looking at it, walking it, sitting in it, reading in it, photographing it, drawing it, and filling empty patches with profusions of flowers for the butterflies and bees (and me!).

Daily writing prompt

Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.

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