Why does this happen, I do not know. Is it cruel trickery or a happening purely without malice? I do not know. After months of dark, damp COLD days … suddenly bright blue skies and warm breezes prevail in my corner of the world. Time for flip flops and a jaunt out into the backyard to see what has survived the storms.

Perchance, a visit the local nursery is in order? Spring must be just around the corner! Time to open the old wallet and buy, buy, buy. The ground is soft, the time to plant is now!

Not so fast, Old Timer. You’ve lived in California long enough to know, it’s a trick. Often without warning, the ocean breezes will change course, and, before you can get all those plants in the ground, winter will return again. Often with a vengeance which makes Donald Trump look like Pollyanna. Now wouldn’t that be something – DT in drag channeling Pollyanna. Hello Hollywood?

The best course is to enjoy each blissful day, and if you must have a task, clean up the debris from winter storms.

This tree was dead before it hit the ground. Massive tree heart attack or some such thing. It took out a wire fence that wasn’t much good at keeping out critters anyway.

A rotting limb fell into a much younger oak. At some point it will need to come down but this is a task that’s beyond me and can definitely wait for summer.

The tea house has survived but the deck was covered with piles of leaves and other debris. I did the best I could but the wood on the deck’s shady side has already begun to rot. Another project for summer’s list. Sigh.

Underneath one pile of leaves I found the remains of some poor creature.

Ugh. Perhaps I can pretend I didn’t really see it.

“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.” Ernest Hemingway, The Moveable Feast