The official start of spring occurs in three days. However, for me, it started today! My brand new juicer came in the mail so I rushed home from work to make juice for the first time (that’s a whole other story that is forth coming). I shoved some yummy fruits and vegetables into my awesome juicer and produced the most beautifully green concoction you’ve ever seen. I decided that juice is best enjoyed outdoors so I headed outside. All my body weight was required to coax the hammock that’s been living in my living room to squeeze through the rather small opening of the entry to my porch. The hammock made contact with the porch, I made contact with the hammock, and Olive (my five pound chihuahua-shitzu mix) made contact with my stomach. All parties rested, perfectly content. The sun was really nailing it on the whole providing warmth thing, it was the kind of weather that is the perfect mix of lightness and nothingness. It’s the kind of weather that’s just right for lazying around a porch. So we did. A tune made its way through the screen door. My eyes followed the words on the screen of my kindle. It’d been a little while since I made time for leisurely reading. Olive was soon overthrown as the only furbaby on the porch as my cat Stella Luna and my other dog Oakley chose to come out. For Stella this was exciting, my future father-in-law and my fiancée recently screened in our porch and today was Stella’s first venture out. It was also Oakley’s first time on the porch as he’s facing fears of deep thresholds. It was perfect to enjoy the weather and my babies all at once. Olive was completely distracted by squirrels who were also taking advantage of the lovely weather- she kept a leaping on and off the hammock to give them a piece of her mind. She’s so tiny that the hammock barely rocked as she moved. It touched me that she kept checking in for cuddles. I knew when she was about to jump down because she’d fixate on something in the distance and begin to scoff and breathe heavy like an angry mother who’s had just about enough of an unrulely child. She’d scoff at me if she knew how adorable I think she is when she gets mad at squirrels. Rarely has sitting felt so blissful. My eyes left my book often to eyeball my jar of juice. Each time the bottom of the jar met my stomach for steadiness, a little ring of sawdust was left behind. I noticed my porch today like never before. The trees in my yard seem to have grown even taller since last spring or perhaps I never took the time to notice their grandure before. There’s a tiny eagle statue atop my outdoor light fixture that, I suppose, has always been perched there but might as well have flown in today if it were for my viewing pleasure. What an ecstatic feeling to know that this activity is mine for the next six months! I could get used to this! It’s moments like these that make me so thankful to have a home and a lovely porch. I am thankful to the boards that hold me up high into the trees, to the sun that allows such comfort outside today, to the birds singing along to the tunes blowing in the breeze, and to the dogs and cat who keep me company every day!
Wildflower Kelly 