Itchin' To Be Diggin'

Day 164: My patience with rain and cold is nearly exhausted. I'm itchin' to be diggin'! Or if not digging, at least pulling some of the weeds and scratching out the moss, preparatory to putting annuals in the ground. I must remind myself that it's still March, a good two months to go before a killing frost is unlikely. Even so, I've had it happen in mid-June, although not in the last decade or so. The garden stores down in Flatland are pushing out their displays, oblivious to the fact that some of us live in Zone 7, a narrow strip of cold country which runs along the spine of the Cascades and spills over where one particular Big Ice Cream Cone dominates the horizon. I wish my psychology permitted  me to channel some of the gardening urge into a bout of spring cleaning, but somehow getting down and dirty has a much greater appeal than mopping floors and polishing doorknobs. Nah, I'll just sit here with the seed catalog on my lap and dream.