Happy spring!  (in case you didn’t know, today March 21st is the official first day for 2011).  I celebrated early by killing it in my garden.  Over the weekend, I built nesting boxes, burned, stacked wood, repaired the Garden Way cart, spread woodchips, and moved lots of debris to the compost pile.  I have a (first day of spring) garden hangover.

Though, to burst my bubble, I just saw that snow is foretasted for this afternoon(!*@!), I am nonetheless eager to see the first blooms of spring and the resplendence of the flowering trees and daffodils.

With cherry blossoms on the way, Jessica Nichols of Sweet Eventide has decided to donate all the proceeds of the sale of this image (available w/o the ‘for japan’)  on her etsy site.    It’s a lovely and heartfelt gesture that I think is worth supporting.  I can’t help but hope that maybe as spring breaks out across japan and their cherry trees start to bloom, there will be an optimism in that fresh growth and beauty that will buoy people.

And also on etsy, I have fallen for the images of Kari Herer who combines magnolia buds with pencil sketches to create beautiful images that are pretty and soft with but with an edgy, slightly shocking, and a little grotesque side.  (Just how I like it!)