And so it begins.

You have no idea how much this warmed the cockles of my heart.

Warmed.

The.

Cockles.

It’s the first tell of spring in our back garden.

The weekend found me laboring.

Laboring with garden rakes and leaf bags and apple baskets and kneeling boards.

Just doing a little spring clean up.

Gracie Allen Golden Pup rolled on her back like a horse, sniffed all the way to China, and ate something in the leaves that caused her to Golden poop green on my freshly raked lawn. Good times.

And in true Golden fashion, she waited until she was in the kitchen to heave the rest.

Gack.

Moving right along.

The lesson learned from my laboring weekend is that Tai Chi doesn’t cover the muscles needed for raking the dead grass, leaves, and unidentified inedible objects — UIOs — out of the yard.

Should have been using a rowing machine.

And Monday rolls in balmy as you please.

Elen