There’s a storm coming. You could hear the buzz all day long, in the newsroom and at Lowe’s and all around town. By now, everyone knows what’s coming.
And what’s coming keeps growing, at least in the eyes of forecasters. 3 to 6 inches. No, 4 to 8. The last time I checked, I think we were in the 10-inch scare, or maybe a whole foot.
The total doesn’t matter as much as this: If you tend things — especially outdoor things — there are certain things that need to be done every time a dumping is in the offing, so to speak.

Before the storm, a mild and sunny late afternoon.

Today, with spring so near and this impending storm so late in the season, the chores I must get done are actually spring-like. Not really snow things.
The pussy willow is loaded with stems  in full “flower,” the black catkins fully developed. A foot of snow could really damage both the branches and the decorative catkin puffs.
But first, a couple of new bottles for the bottle tree, a Christmas gift from the man I love. We haven’t had more than a coating since Christmas, so I’m
anxious to see the bottles under a good healthy layer of snow.
Two new bottles. One from my youngest son who is a bit bothered that blue glass can’t always be recycled. But he’s right. We were all reminded in the last Jackson Township newsletter that blue glass isn’t acceptable by its hauler, York Waste.

Check with your own recyclables hauler or municipal office to see if blue glass is accepted. But here’s something cool that my Google search just turned up: “There is a new way to make granite-like counters and floors by blending pieces of colored glass together.  This type of material is called ‘ttura.'”

Oh, yeah, I’ll be checking into that. But today, back to that coming storm.

Now that I’ve brought in the branches, I’ll just bundle them to be put out at a spring yard sale. Or given up to friends in need of a little special thing, like a long lasting bouquet of pussy willow.

When I got home from work today and realized I actually had about an hour to get some gardening done, it struck me that I would end up again with a blog post about gardening.

But here it is. It’s March. And I grow things. A lot of things.So there will probably be a lot more such talk in the weeks to come.

And then, there’s the fact that we will have a wedding here at Pinespring in June. Oh, happy day. Our second wedding in this beautiful surrounding, but the first to be celebrated at a time when we can be outdoors. This place, like so many others, is at its loveliest when we can be outdoors. So, yes, there will be a lot of gardening gussying in the next couple of months.
But for right now, this day, at this time — there’s a storm coming. There are things to tend.