Stink Patch

…and then it rained some more, like all week until today more, two inches more. And it was cold, really cold. Damp cold. Dreary cold. Winter cold.
     Today there is hope. The sun shines down from a Carolina blue sky with not a cloud in sight! Birds are chirping, I can hear the happy voices of the preschool children on the playground on our block, it has warmed into the 40's and dog, Scout, is sleeping in a sunbeam at my side. Spring is in the air today. This is the good life in a small town down South. However, the garden looks and smells like a stink patch. Stinky, stinky, slimy frozen, then thawed, broccoli! Hoo whee!
     In the Just So You Know category:
     My retirement gift to self (there have been many :) has been a perennial flower bed. All summer I worked on it buying plants as they came available at our local garden big box centers. Bulbs were the last to go in and, despite the thoroughly yucky weather, are sprouting! Daffodill and crocus bulbs  have pushed little green shoots up beneath the pine straw mulch. Evidence that we are on the down side of winter, the upside of summer.