Tall Tales from Kansas

Because it would not be spring without a pot of pansies, I present my selection from the nursery last week. I used to share an office with Barb, whose mom (Ginger) would call us every year when it was time to get “the pansies”. This was more than 20 years ago, and Ginger is in charge of pansies in the after-life now, but I still get a huge smile on my face and think about how much we enjoyed that call every spring. Such a simple thing. But it’s deeply embedded in my memory banks. Every year now, I share a photo of my pansies with Barb and we continue to remember together.

On the bedside reading front, I have finished 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It’s told in the form of an exchange of letters over the course of many years between a writer and a used book seller. Nothing like The Correspondent, but a lovely read all the same.

An oxalis is also a spring requirement here at Tall Tales Headquarters. The last several years I have had green ones but was lucky to find this delightful shade of burgundy. When the weather warms it will go on the porch, for now it lives on the dining room table. It is very hard not to load up the cart at the nursery with all the flowers beginning to be available for planting. We have the possibility of a hard frost for another month at least, typically anyway. No need to jump the gun.

In preparation for our trip to Paris in May, I am needing to exercise my painting/drawing/sketching muscles. You gotta start somewhere, and before you get there is best. I’ve said it once, I will say it again, you do NOT have to be great at something to get intense satisfaction from doing it.

Do tell what spring activities you are up to. I am going to go and change the sheets on the bed now, then catch up on some newspaper reading, then I am going to roast some mushrooms for salads this week, and finally I may go shopping for some fresh “spring” candles. Happy NO KINGS day to each of you.