Signs of Spring

Ah, Spring!

The dogs have begun bringing mud into the house again and leaving it in cold damp clumps on the carpet - each time I step on one of them, I am reminded of the mouse that Two considerately killed a few years back, that I stepped on. Makes for gingerly navigation of the house when I'm barefoot and it's dark.

Mud, and sticky things from the cottonwood trees. Our tree does not produce the cotton fluff that fills the air when it goes to seed, but it does produce these weird flowers (?) that resemble emaciated fuzzy caterpillars. They fall profusely in the spring, and provide a temporary purple dye to overlay the concrete under the pergola in the back yard when they get wet. And when they fall, they're accompanied by little brownish crescent-moon-shaped sticky things - I have no idea what purpose they serve, either, except to cling to the bottom of your feet and make you stick to your shoes as you walk.

This morning, while I was still fumbling around half-awake, my husband, who'd been feeding the dogs (Anneke allows no slouching when it comes to breakfast at our house: because she's a morning person, we are all morning people), suddenly bolted into the bedroom, grabbed some clothes, and raced back out while pulling them on.

I followed. "Wha...?" I asked.

"We have a huge leak somewhere. I can hear it," he replied, and shot out the front door.

More drip irrigation maintenance required; one of the microsprinklers had lost its head and was jetting water into the air. Given that it was a 1/4" pipe, I wouldn't call it "huge", but it did need attention.

It's sunny so far today, but the radio is re-running its forecast of the week (they just keep repeating it until it comes true), calling for rain at some point. And the clouds have that charcoal tinge at their edges that hints of actual water content, so they could be right. Walking into my office building, I could smell spring - around here, Spring smells of drying wet asphalt to me - a hot, dusty, but fresh sort of smell.

I think I might have to go for a walk at lunch.