SPRINGTIME

A Crocus blooming under the leaves.

Butter yellow crocuses in my yard.

Max Leonard, blissful on his porch.

Sophie's world.

I've been really busy lately, with the shows I've been doing and everything else.  I realized today that I haven't really been paying attention to the signs of spring that are all around.  There are flowers really beginning to bloom now, even with the 5 inches of late season snow that fell over the weekend.  The snow was melted before noon the next day, which is Iowa for you.  Another thing that reminds me that it's spring are cats on my front porch.  Max loved the front porch.  When we moved into this house, there were a lot of things that needed repair due to many years of neglect.  The first thing that we fixed, even though money was tight, was the screening on the front porch.  Max loved being on the porch and we didn't want him to get out and get hurt.  Years later when we had the money we put in new screens and storm windows to winterize the porch, so the cats could be out longer in the fall.  I remember the contractor saying that it was the world's most expensive cat toy.  He was right.  Sophie was an outdoor cat when she got her.  She's an indoor kitty now and she uses the porch to survey her world.  When I go to bed at night, the last thing that I do is carry her into the house.  She'd stay out there all night if I let her.

It's hard to believe that it's been almost 6 months since Max died.  I had a meeting today and when I came home, for some reason it hit me so hard that I'd never see him on his front porch again.  Sophie was there though and it makes me really happy that she loves it out there as much as Max did.  Signs of spring are everywhere.