The bushes that line our driveway are wild with red leaves and white clusters of flowers, and the rose bushes that are growing over the arbor gate to the side of the house have exploded in tiny yellow and white blooms. Even our two tiny little trees in the front yard have flowers, and the bushes that line the front porch are showing a discreet sprinkling of color. The collection of random plants on the berm (on which sits Herman the toad and Gnigel the Gnome) are full of spring - sprigs of purple on the lavender bush and something else that had beautiful flowers a mix of white and yellow and blue. The poppies-that-want-to-take-over-the-world are joining the game a bit late this year, but I've seen a few pink flowers lurking amid the green over the last week. And while the vines have not yet decided to start budding, I know that very soon I'll open my windows and doors to the smell of jasmine.

I planted a little thing of catnip and a little thing of oregano and put them in my kitchen window this weekend. So far they have been unaccosted but so far there are also no green shoots yet to tempt certain plant-nibbling cats. There are ferns and some kind of philodendron thing that I need to re-pot, but I am a bit hesitant to actually step foot into a nursery right now. Spring does strange things to even the most black-thumbed of gardeners, and if I am not careful I will walk out with more green things that I have no idea how to grow and will most likely just kill through sheer ignorance, instead of the handful of pots and bag of soil I really need.

The backyard is actually under way. When I got home tonight the gardener was in the yard marking out the areas where he'll be laying sod. Turns out it was a good thing I managed to hook up with him as he'd not realized that the plans include extending the back porch another few feet. It's a lot easier to move a few orange flags and some paint than it would be to move a big plot of sod.

They have dug the trenches for the gutter drain pipes (they'll now drain into huge tubes that go under the yard out to the street instead of making puddles by the house). Some time over the next week we'll see a lot more trenches, as they lay in all the pipes for irrigation. And then shortly after that we'll have two patches of actual lawn in our backyard. Granted they will be surrounded by much larger patches of bare dirt and/or weeds, but at least it's a start.

I really should get those new pots and soil before they get started, now that I think about it. It will be a lot easier to reign in my spring-induced impulses when the backyard is still just weeds and random holes, than to wait until it is suddenly ready for bushes and trees and other things.