Today I board a flight for my annual girls’ weekend, and I could not be more ready. I realized this morning that I haven’t taken more than a long weekend off from work since I returned from my sabbatical in July. I felt a huge release yesterday at the end of my work day, when I could finally turn my brain off. I probably shouldn’t have waited this long.

March is here, and I am ready for it. I started running again once it warmed up a little bit. I ran outside 3 or 4 times in the past couple of weeks, in short sleeves, and the warm sun on my arms has been glorious. Right now, our windows are open, and I sit in our living room in long sleeves, with a blanket and a cat on my lap, while I listen to birds twitter outside.

The snowdrops and purple crocuses are in bloom at the top of the hill, and I pruned the rose bushes last weekend. I’m not taking a full week off of work for my girls weekend, but at the end of March I will: I’ve put my annual gardening vacation on the calendar. As the days lengthen and the ground warms, I stand at the back door and plan.

Or, I try to plan. For five years, I’ve had a beautiful bed of echinacea in the back garden. Nothing bothered it: not rabbits, not deer. It filled in with broad green leaves by mid-summer, bloomed in magenta coneflowers in July and August, and dried down to spiky seed heads that goldfinches perch and preen on in September and October. Last year, a groundhog found my beautiful bountiful bed and trampled it. It ate all the leaves so that nothing was left but stems, then crushed the stems beneath its gallumping gait. I adore the groundhog, and also, I want my flowers. I don’t know how to solve this problem.

But as I mentioned at the top, my brain is currently off, so I’m not going to think about that now. Right now I’m going to make myself some snacks for the flight, pet the purring cat on my lap, and listen to the birds.