Snow's Nearly Gone, Snowdrops Are Up, Maybe One Day the House Will Be Repaired

There are few better ways to spend a spring Saturday afternoon than raking the front yard. Often, though, I don't get around to doing it until later, but this year I knew it should be done earlier.

When the workers took down the plaster in much of the house last December they dragged the debris outside in fresh snow. While most of the junk made it into the removal truck, some remained in the front yard all winter, hidden under the snow. The thaw uncovered it all, and I knew with the spring rains the it would dissolve, changing the pH of the soil What grows there is pretty hardy--mostly native plants, in fact--but over the years I've worked out a pretty good balance, and I don't want to mess with it.

So Saturday I raked, freeing up the snowdrops which are now lovely. Wish the work inside the house was going as quickly and splendidly as the plants are growing outside. This is what my office looked like a week ago--all the hardwood floors have been pulled up as has the plaster and much of the lath.