On Spring

I really do love spring.

My house is clean and all the windows are open. Yum!

I'm fixin' to curl up with a book. (Another Diane Chamberlain, it's good)

If a person could capture and sell the complete essence of spring (warm sun, cool breeze, birdies tweeting, etc) they would make enough off me to retire at 30.

Something about spring (and fall actually) reminds me of the best days of my childhood. It reminds me of hanging out at my grandmother's house.

Spring especially reminds me of making "soup" in my grandmother's backyard.

My grandmother had some old kitchen items (pots, pans, spoons, etc.) in her basement. There was one particular big boiler we used to make "soup". One person was in charge of filling the pot with some water and stirring. The stirring had to be done continuously for some reason. The rest of us would gather "ingredients". One of our favorite "ingredients" was blooms off the hybiscus bush in the front yard. If you got caught picking those you got in big trouble so usually a brother or a cousin got those. The rest of us would gather dirt, leaves from different bushes, grasses, flower petals, etc. It took a long time to do. When we were done we dumped it out. I'm not exactly sure what our fascination with "soup" was but we made it all the time.

Yesterday I was sitting out on the driveway reading. The girls' brother came over to play. He and my youngest were waiting for the oldest to change clothes, etc. (They were waiting a while.) While they were waiting they got bored. Brother decided to lay face down on the driveway with his head pointing downhill (it's a REALLY steep driveway). He proceeded to spit and blow it down the hill. He kept having to add to it because it was evaporating. My youngest decided it looked like fun so she commenced blowing her own spit down the driveway.

As repulsed as I was by their chosen activity, it made me smile. It looked like exactly the kind of thing my brothers and I would have done as kids had we been bored and had a steep paved hill.