It's the most wonderful time of the year.

With temperatures in the mid-forties one day and in the teens the next, it might also be the most maddening time of the year. 

But sticking with the positive for a bit: gardening season will be here soon.  One has to use that nebulous term, "soon," when dealing with the end of winter, but it's ok. 

We're closer than we were last month to planting seeds in miniature pots, while contemplating the possibilities of the summer ahead. Soon we'll be emptying last year's containers (spring is when everyone does that, right?) and marveling at how that mass of moving dirt -- no, wait!  those earthworms -- can survive the winter, thaw themselves out, and keep right on truckin'.  Before we know it we'll be methodically plucking the tiniest of new weeds from among the baby lettuces and spinaches and beets in their as yet undefinable rows. 

Let's not think about the vile white grubs we'll slide gingerly onto the end of a trowel and fling to the end of the driveway, or the beetles we'll crush with nearly our bare hands. (A couple of folded tomato leaves are a sufficient barrier from insect ick, yes? psychologically, at least, for the beetles, and that's what counts.) 

Rather, let's look forward to the excitement of finding new buds on this plant, and that one! and another over here!  And for now, let's read and scheme and plan and anticipate.

Happy Almost Gardening season to all who celebrate.