We appear to have achieved spring:

This may be the only season in which this garden bed actually looks good, although I'll have to see what I can do about that.

( one more, plus salamanders & silliness )

In other news (or not)... Some days, I almost regret not becoming an academic. Of course, it's mainly the mad wastes of time that make me feel that way, so I don't suppose it was the wrong choice. In either case, I am a fan. Or at least amused.

I'm less amused to hear that apparently there are people in the world who think that St Patrick's day ought to be boycotted by All Good Pagans, and that the proper way to do so is by wearing orange. Admittedly, I am also sufficiently unsympathetic that I feel anyone who's so wrapped up in their invented version of ancient history to have missed something like the Catholic/Protestant issues in Ireland probably deserves to be punched when they walk into the wrong bar trying to proclaim that they don't approve of this festival. However, some good has come of it, as thewronghands posted an overview of Irish colonial problems, and came up with people pointing her towards recipes for "Irish car bomb" cupcakes (which are a variant of chocolate stout cake), and a rather fascinating essay on Scots history as compared to the American Indians. (Admittedly, I know a great deal more about Scots history than Irish, which I could claim was because even though my grandmother's grandmother came over to this continent because of the potato blight, she was Scots Irish, but I think it has much more to do with my having grown up listening to Jean Redpath recordings.)

Meanwhile, I have been reading about prayer beads and breadmaking, and I am going off to the aquarium this evening to see about volunteering to plant marsh grasses in the mud. The sun is out, the laundry is dry, and I have still got quilt blocks to make.