Could this really be spring?

In the last two days, the weather has been acceptable, and the plants have exploded into life. Two days ago I was wandering around a few dead-looking sticks in the back yard, wondering if I had been a leetle too aggressive with the rosebush trimming (never done that before). This afternoon all those sticks had sprouted leaves. So I guess they're growing back in spite of my clippers.

Our fruit trees are flowering, all hundred billion of them. Well, ok, not really all of them. The apple trees apparently grow leaves first and then flower, so no blossoms there yet. The apricot tree flowered first, trying to get the honeybees' attention while they're still crazy with spring fever. So that tree is done. But it appears that the plum and pear and cherry trees can't decide whether they prefer leaves first or flowers, and so they've grown them both in the last few days.

We did something crazy, Tim and I. Remember our overwhelming apple harvest from October? We went months and months with apples. We only just threw out the last of them in March (they were molding in the garage). But yesterday, we planted another apple tree.

Yes! I told you we were crazy. The thing is, we learned to love Bramley apples after being introduced to them by a colleague in Liverpool while we lived in England. These are true baking apples. When you bake them, they stay tart and turn light and fluffy. My mother says "ah yes, like Pippin apples". NO! Pippin apples turn rubbery and don't keep their tartness under baking. There is nothing like a Bramley apple for baking. They don't need sugar. They don't need cinnamon. Of course it doesn't hurt to drizzle them with toffee sauce, but that's true of pretty much anything in this world.

So, Tim did a little research and found a nursery in New York state that sells Bramley apple trees. He mail ordered one. One for us, two for our English friend's family. The trees arrived, about 3 feet tall sticks. And so we planted ours. Maybe within a couple of years we'll get our first Bramley apples, if the thing survives being shipped in a box with its roots merely wrapped in plastic. And if the tree can survive our brutally long and cold and bitter and long winters (did I mention it is way past time for spring?), and our hot and dry summers. This climate of ours does not have much in common with that of England. Except possibly April.

I'll let you know how it goes in two years, I promise.

And then I wanted to close with one other story. Yesterday it was warm enough that today I decided to wear shorts. Or at least, I pulled an item of clothing out of my closet that is the closest thing in my wardrobe to shorts, my wardrobe having felt the influence of my employment at G.O.D. University.

I biked over to the university this morning, and it was just lovely to feel the spring wind rushing through my hair. Only I'm not referring to the hair on my head. Yes, it has been a long winter, and my leg hair has grown long. And it was lovely to wear shorts and let it blow free in the wind.

Did I just post that on the internet?