spring is just around the corner

Yesterday, I took a long walk around the neighborhood and noticed that the buds of spring are starting to pop out of the ground. We've still been experiencing some late winter freezes, so I'm hoping that it doesn't effectively kill them off this year. Last year we had a rather dismal display of fall colors due to the late freeze.

As much as I look forward to the spring, and the green that it brings to the Ozarks, there are certain things I am not looking forward to. At the top of my list are the insects that it will bring. Although we don't see too many mosquitoes in the spring (when compared to their summer invasion), we get spiders in the house fairly often. Last year, I managed to keep them at bay by spraying insecticide around the perimeter of the home (inside and out) every few months. I'm going to have to do the same thing this year, as we noticed our first spider in the house yesterday evening. It wasn't a brown recluse, which was a relief, but I know that we have them around here, as I killed a LOT of them last year. It's just a shame that I have to use insecticide to keep them away. I hate the idea that this stuff leeches into the ground and eventually ends up in the hollow behind our house, only to runoff and seep into the underground springs in town.

I also noticed yesterday that there was a stretch of gutters in the yard that I didn't get a chance to clean out last fall, so they are overflowing and "hairy" with an abundance of pine needles. Our deck is looking pretty bad, too, which makes me mad since I just finished staining it last summer. I'm also disappointed in the patio furniture set that we picked up last year, as the arms are already rusting. I guess you get what you pay for - they were on sale. I'm going to have to sand them down and repaint soon, less we get rust smears on our elbows.

We also get to look forward to the throngs of tourists that warm weather brings - hooray for us.