Saturdays in the Garden - Spring!

OUTSIDE

It's Spring! 

There have been a bunch of spring firsts here - two of which are personal favorites!  First the Red-winged Blackbirds showed up with their fancy little epaulettes and started strutting about in the grassy ditches by the road.

The Chorus Frogs started singing.

source: psychoticnature.com

And the Robins have been hopping around picking randomly at the ground as they do.

It also got up to almost 86 degrees early this week, which is perhaps a tad too warm for this time of year but I'm not complaining.  I still have not yet gotten a single additional plant started but it's on the agenda for tomorrow.

LIFE

The topmost picture was how my day started.  While I was the tiniest bit resentful at having to be on the road before sunrise on a Saturday, it does have it's perks:).  It was another busy week catching up at work but I think I'm over the hump.  There are still a few busy weeks ahead but manageable. I think.

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

I finished up the five seasons of M*A*S*H that were available on Netflix.  I'm happy to say that the show improved in season 5 after a weaker season 4 AND it also got a much better on the sexism front.  Houlihan had actually evolved into (arguably) the most interesting character on the show and we get this lovely exchange, acted superbly, with the formerly shameless Hawkeye:

Hawkeye: Oh, come on, Margaret, you're taking all the fun out of it.
Margaret: Yes, that's right, I am.
Hawkeye: Margaret, this is not merely a dream come true: gammaglobulin goes better in a person's kaboose.
Margaret: Not this person's.
Hawkeye: Margaret, you're a nurse!
Margaret: Oh, alright, let's get this over with!
Hawkeye: My sentiments exactly: let us not dawdle over a moment like this; let us treat it as a professional encounter of the most - oh, Margaret, may I pause on this occasion to express a few thoughts?
Margaret: If you say ONE word...!
Hawkeye: Oh, I wouldn't, I would not a word - but, but if I did that word would be magnificent! Would that be bad?
Margaret: Would you please just give me the shot?
Hawkeye: OK, OK. There.
Margaret: How dare you, come in here on the pretext of giving me a shot, and then stand there ogling me as though I were a side-show attraction?
Hawkeye: Boy, I show you a little appreciation and you hit the roof. What do you want from me?
Margaret: Respect. Simple respect. I expect nothing more and I'll accept nothing less.
Hawkeye: Hey, that's pretty good. You got me with that. Good.
Hawkeye: No, I mean, you really did. I bet that would work with Donald's mother.
Margaret: What?
Hawkeye: Maybe not those words, but that attitude: simple respect.
Margaret: Maybe.
Hawkeye: You know, in some ways, you really are magnificent, and not just on the outside.

With no more M*A*S*H, I watched the first couple episodes of the rebooted Cosmos with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and I have just one thing to say - Science is the bomb diggity.  I didn't want to continue with it tonight while I am trying to write this up because it requires some concentration so I casually scrolled through and decided to re-watch the first few episodes of The Vicar of Dibley which was the best idea I have ever had.  Dawn French may be the funniest and most charming person alive and she ends up getting together with Richard Armitage!!  It's a delightful show if you've never watched it - available for streaming on Netflix.

On the reading front, I finished Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon this week.  It had a lot of things I loved but also a fair number of things I didn't so middle of the road read.  I also started an older British police procedural - The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey.

On the Blog Last Week:

SUNDAY: I Wish I Lived in a Musical: My Favorite Broadway Musicals
TUESDAY: Top Ten Tuesday - Spring Reading List
WEDNESDAY:  Review of The Mermaid's Child by Jo Baker. 
THURSDAY:  Tough Traveling : Bards  - An examination of tropes in fantasy literature hosted by Fantasy Review Barn. My list is pretty pathetic, I'm afraid - I apparently don't read a lot of Bardic fantasy.

On the Blog Next Week:

SUNDAY: Review of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift
TUESDAY: Top Ten Tuesday - Top 10 Books From My Childhood (Or teen years) That I Would Love To Revisit ).  Hosted by Broke and Bookish.
WEDNESDAY: Review of Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon
THURSDAY: Tough Traveling - Beloved Mounts

That's it for this week!  What are some of your favorite signs of spring?

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.

Rainer Maria Rilke