Eco-purists will have to bear with me on this one, because it features premature raking of huge piles of leaves to prepare for, gasp, grass-reseeding.  I know, but it has to be done.  I’m not the owner or renter.  And there are kids and a dog.

To my credit, I never bag, burn, or shred leaves while there may still be beneficial critters involved.  I relocate them all to areas that can use more leaf mulch, or the compost pile.  Nothing gets wasted.

Loucious loves leaf piles.  No sooner had I raked them into neat mountains, than he dove into them with his frisbee and proceeded to bury and unbury it and himself, undoing the pile in the process!  It was hilarious.

I also worked on cleaning up some of the beds that needed help so the new seedlings could find the surface.  As it gets closer to the last frost date, I’ve been direct-sowing hardy flowers into various beds.

I keep finding new ephemerals coming up, like yellow bellwort, white trout lily, spring beauty, solomon’s seal, mayapple, wild ginger, and many more.  Each one is exciting.  Of course my favorite is bluebells.  Ephemerals by definition are impermanent, so you love them while you can, but can’t hold on.  Again, thank you to the people who came before us and had this vision of habitat conservation.

There are also some noxious exotic invasives that are really taking over this year, but (again, purists look away) it’s not for me to kill myself trying and failing to eradicate them.  Some things must be put up with.  (Metaphor alert!)

Speaking of compromises, as you probably guessed, at the last minute I decided to at least attempt to honor Pesach with a couple of festive dinners and seder plate symbolisms.  I must if nothing else uphold my reigning charoset world title.  So off I go to make up for lost time.