Meg Evans

Even though today has been cold and gray where I live, with occasional rain and plenty of thick clouds hanging low, the signs of spring all around are making it look brighter anyway! All the green growing things are waking up from their winter sleep. There’s a pale green shimmer spreading over the willow hedge as the leaves start to open, and the rose bushes are sprouting little leaf buds. And after last week’s cleanup of old dead flowers, I can see lots of bulbs coming up in my front garden.
 

“The bulbs in the secret garden must have been much astonished. Such nice clear places were made round them that they had all the breathing space they wanted, and really, if Mistress Mary had known it, they began to cheer up under the dark earth and work tremendously. The sun could get at them and warm them, and when the rain came down it could reach them at once, so they began to feel very much alive.”

— Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden (1911)
 

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I did some spring cleanup in my front garden by pulling last year’s dead annual flowers—snapdragons and alyssum. I generally leave them in the ground over the winter because they sometimes can survive if the weather is mild; but although this year wasn’t as frigid as last winter, it certainly didn’t qualify as mild either!
 

I believe that touching the earth can make us feel more in touch with nature and, generally, better nurtured. So, although I often wear gardening gloves to avoid getting my hands scratched or irritated, I didn’t wear them for the few minutes it took to pull the dead flowers. I wasn’t outside very long because it has been chilly and windy the past few days, but it felt good to get out there anyway!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Although Tuesday was a dark and wet day here, the winter-yellowed grass in my backyard looked brighter than usual, as if it couldn’t quite contain the energy about to burst forth in spring growth. I took a photo showing the soft reflections on the wet wood of the deck and the grass beyond. At this time of year, even though it’s cool and rainy, just looking around outside gives me a feeling that the world is full of potential.
 

I found myself thinking that a few hundred years ago, I probably would’ve been a farm wife in a little village somewhere, walking around in the mud all day in handmade shoes and perhaps running short of food by the end of the winter. So there’s certainly no reason to complain about today’s easy chores, such as driving to the supermarket and then putting the groceries away in the refrigerator and pantry!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

The world is always full of interesting stuff to discover. I never knew that cow ears were sold as dog treats until my husband bought one for Diva Dog, mainly because he was curious about what such a small dog would do with a big old cow ear. She grabbed it right away, ran gleefully around the house with it, and then settled down to gnaw her prize. It took her a while to eat the whole thing, but there was never any doubt she was determined to conquer it!
 

A few days later, my daughter was buying dog food at the pet store, noticed some dog cookies with “Diva” on them, and couldn’t pass that up. (The dog’s name isn’t really Diva, but we all started calling her that because she acts so much like one.)
 

So I decided this week’s Nurturing Thursday post would be all about a happy life from a dog’s perspective:
 

1. Life is full of unexpected Wow! moments, mainly having to do with yummy stuff you didn’t know about.
2. When a Wow! shows up, it’s okay to get super excited and run all around the house wagging your tail.
3. Of course you can eat it, no matter how big it is! Anything and everything is for eating!
4. Ooh, there are crumbs to lick up, too! Go ahead, they’re your crumbs after all, so why not?
5. It’s all gone, aww… but here’s a toy in the corner, so now it’s time to play again! Yay!
 

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

…make an alligator.

That’s what a creative neighbor family did when we had a lot of snow this past weekend, making a snow sculpture of an alligator in their driveway. That gave me a smile when I drove past and saw it, so I took a photo to share for Nurturing Thursday:
 

And in the “be careful what you wish for” category: Last week I was grumbling to myself about needing a new mailbox because the old one was rusty and was hard to open and close in the cold weather. On Monday, the snowplow ran into the mailbox and totally mangled it. My husband bought a new one after he got home from work.
 

Though it was no fun for my husband putting the new mailbox on the post in the cold and dark, it definitely looks much better now. So, all’s well that ends well!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Back in October, I posted a photo of the willow hedge that runs along my backyard fence, and I got a comment asking for another photo in the winter showing the bare branches. So here it is—the snow looks quiet and peaceful, but the wind was whipping it up just before I took this picture, and I hurried right back inside to get out of the cold!
 

The hedge looks especially pretty at this time of year, with all the little white catkins unfolding. It doesn’t matter how cold and snowy the weather gets—the willows always put on a show anyway! Our own lives are not so very different. Even though there are times when we may not feel that we’re in the most comfortable and nurturing environment, we are still capable of creating beautiful things; and all kinds of worthwhile lessons go on unfolding when it’s the right season for them.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Diva Dog didn’t have the best morning today. She has a small irritated area on her belly, so she has been wearing a cone to stop her from picking at it while it heals. Of course, she hates the cone, so she has been making her best efforts to look pitiful and convince us to take it off. She probably could win an award for best actress or blues singer with some of the poor-little-me noises she makes.
 

All of us have bad days when we feel like singing the blues; but overdoing the self-pity just makes us look silly to others while feeling worse about things ourselves, and that’s not a good way to go through life. Though a dog may not be capable of understanding that a bad day soon will be over, people would do better to keep in mind that “this too shall pass.”

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

While the groundhog was seeing its shadow on Monday morning, I looked out my back window and found snow flurries falling at the same time the sun was shining. As a child I would have thought that looked magical, rather than grumbling about not wanting six more weeks of winter. So I took a picture to remind myself that how we feel about things is all a matter of how we look at them.
 

The flurries can’t be seen very well through the screen, but I think the photo shows at least a little of the soft magical look. Although it’s clear and cold here today, the sunshine coming through the windows feels warm. Every moment of our days is like a high-resolution snapshot packed full of little details, and we’re always free to choose which ones get our attention!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I could hear the clatter of freezing rain when I woke up this morning. My daughter’s puppy (a.k.a. Diva Dog) wasn’t at all happy about being put outside to do her business, but stood next to the sliding glass door looking at us with big sad eyes as if to say, “You really expect me to go out in this?” The sky was so dark that when I sat down at my desk, I turned on the flameless candle that I keep to brighten my workspace on such mornings. I bought it to remind myself that I always have plenty of time (as discussed in this post) because time is a constant and there is only now.
 

The rain didn’t last long, and the sun came out for a while, looking brighter and higher than in the past months—as if sending a message that winter’s end is not far away. This year I haven’t felt stuck indoors and gloomy because of the cold weather, although not many days have been above the average January temperatures. I believe that’s the result of making efforts to cultivate a more positive outlook and to appreciate the moment. Even on a dark morning with freezing rain, there is always something to appreciate, starting with the simple fact of being indoors with cozy warm central heating!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Because my daughter has been here longer than expected since she graduated from college last May, we’ve all been stepping on her dog’s toys for months. So we decided it was about time to start training the dog to pick up those toys. In addition to playing with the usual chew toys, the dog gleefully nabs stuffed animals from my daughter’s room whenever the opportunity arises. We put the toys in a laundry basket, with a blanket at the bottom to raise them up high enough for a small dog to reach easily.
 

I don’t know if the dog will actually learn how to put away the toys and start doing it consistently before my daughter moves to an apartment. But even if we do more of the picking up than the dog does, it’s worthwhile because the house is much more comfortable without dog toys scattered all over the place. There’s a useful lesson in that, I’d say. Just a little effort to get things better organized can go a long way toward a more pleasant environment, no matter whose toys are in need of picking up!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.