the first spring days

i think many people feel the need after a long winter cooped up at home to seize those first beautiful warm early spring days and do something to make the most out of them! i sure do.

last weekend, we had our annual garden day which involved me carrying some new plants and pots home in a big red basket and alex hauling a gigantic bag of soil over his shoulder, walking home from the garden center.
(side note: we are still perfectly happy not having a car here in europe, even after trips like this! really.)

i still haven’t planted my seedlings but with the lighter evenings and daylight savings approaching, anything is possible – not only for weekends anymore!

this weekend i really felt the need to get out on an excursion and to see how the earth was waking out of its winter slumber. i brought a sack and my gloves just in case a random act of foraging might break out (i’m very patiently awaiting the first of the dandelion leaves and the early nettles!) but it wasn’t so. we walked around the beautiful area that surrounds the ruin of dívčí kamen (incidentally, the place where, our first summer here, i dressed up as a princess for sixty children and ate schnitzel while hanging out with goats all by myself, but that is a different story – hoo boy).

the tiny first green shoots were just starting to come up from under the dry, dusty brown leaves and the first wildflowers of the season (purple hepatica). at one point we stopped by a stream so we could “lead ferdie to have some water”, and he just plunk, jumped in. we were so shocked! (so was he.) then he looked at us like “hey, so, get me out of here”  i guess when you’re really thirsty, you’re willing to do almost anything for a bit of water. it was pretty hilarious, though.

we sat at this village green surrounded by typical south bohemian farmhouses at the end of our hike in třísov, warming my bare legs in the sun – it felt so luxurious. ferdie straight-up napped. tired pup.

one thing i will never get used to living in central europe is the fact that you can go walking around in a skirt and t-shirt and all around you are bare, grey trees. the temperature and the surroundings don’t ever seem to line up well in early spring. coming from washington where flowers are known to blossom at the end of february and cherry blossoms are full steam ahead by mid-march, it seems like such an odd, desolate time of year. never have i so eagerly monitored the progress of growing buds on tree branches, or green shoots in the soil. they take their time here.

happy spring, friends. i have a wee 60′s and 70′s-laden spring song spotify playlist if you need a little extra help getting in the spring mood (warning: super cheesy!).