Springtime

I love springtime.  It is by far my favorite time of the year. I love the blooming flowers, the cool weather, and the green hillsides.  For someone who loves spring as much as me, it seems peculiar that I wasn’t born or even conceived in the spring.  The coming of spring holds a special promise of hope, life and renewal.  Maybe I love spring because all my children were born in the spring.  Graduation ceremonies happen in the spring.  Spring also brings with it a special set of transitional tasks that I fully embrace every year.

I’m totally into spring cleaning.  Certainly this ritual didn’t originate with me.  In fact, I know that I owe a debt of gratitude to the Jews who traditionally cleaned their houses in preparation for the Passover memorial feast.  Or maybe I owe the Persians (Iranians) who just before the Persian New Year on the first day of spring developed a practice they call, “khooneh tekouni” which translates to “shaking the house”.  I guess I might also need to thank the Greeks and Catholics who had similar cleaning rituals associated with the start of spring.  No matter when or where or with whom the spring cleaning ritual originated, I have fully bought into it.  Every room in my home gets a thorough cleaning, especially the windows, ceiling fans, and closets.  I don’t use harsh chemicals, just a general cleaning solution of dishwashing liquid, vinegar, and water. 

I also put stuff away (organize or reorganize) or give stuff away (donate).  There’s this great best selling book by Japanese author, Marie Kondo titled, “The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up“.  I credit her with teaching me how to decide whether to keep and item  or donate it.  She also has the best organizing tips I have ever come across.  I favor the local Goodwill Industries as my donation site. Everything gets looked at, including books and magazines, keepsakes, and clothes. The big one is clothing.  

For the items I want to wear next fall, I store my “California” cool weather clothes and shoes in big plastic bins under my bed.  Then, it’s like this huge surprise when I pull out my spring and summer wardrobe.  In truth, I’ve forgotten about some of the items, having not seen them for six months.  Living in California, the weight of the clothes isn’t too different from my fall and winter clothes, but the colors and fabrics are different.  I favor cottons and linins for the spring and summer.  I choose to wear more whites and tans. I get rid of gray altogether.  I  go for sandals and more open toed heels for work.   

 My home décor also undergoes a major transformation each spring.  We built a huge attic on the top half of our high-ceiling garage.  That extra space allows me to purchase decorative pillows, candle sticks, silk flowers, and a few other choice items to transform my home from the warm cozy winter hibernation to a cool garden summer home.   

And finally, springtime awakens my enthusiasm for gardening.  It’s time to pull my collard greens and mustards.  We already got busy pulling weeds from our hillside and trimming the ice plant, especially this year with all the rain.  We’ve trimmed the hedges, fertilized the grass, and fed the roses.  I can already admire the early bloom of the freesias and the wisteria as I empty and wash my pots and maybe even paint a few new ones for this year.  Last year, I painted over 30 pots.  Nothing impressive, as I paint like a talented five year old, but it was fun.  I take great joy in planting annual flowers in pots and arranging them just right on the incredible plant shelves my husband built. I’ll plant my summer vegetables, especially two varieties of tomatoes, red and green peppers, hot peppers, green onions, cucumbers, and a variety of herbs.   We have fruit trees that will yield more peaches and plums than we can eat ourselves come summer.  I look forward to treating my friends and colleagues to fruits and vegetables we’ve grown throughout the summer.

Yes, spring is my favorite time of the year and perhaps one of the busiest, too, with state and federal  taxes to file. I pace myself, tackling the task a little at a time up to April 15th because we never expect a big refund.  I don’t want to lend my money to the government interest free, so I work out my taxes so that we owe a little each year and not the other way around.  I do have to remind myself that paying taxes is our patriotic duty and that we are  paying our fair share for the roads, firemen, and all the other shared services that benefit the collective good.  I’ve always done my own taxes and Turbo Tax has been my friend since they introduced it.

With so much to accomplish each spring, thank goodness for the extra hour of sunlight we receive from that yearly ritual called, “Daylight Savings Time.”