Spring is here: first BBQ, compost pickups, crocuses (gratitude #15)

We dusted off the grill and had the first BBQ of 2008 last night. Bahamian grilled chicked from the The Barbecue! Bible. Tasty. Not quite weather for dinner outside, but getting there. Almost time to break out the outdoor table from the garage.

I noticed all the neighbors out in their yards yesterday, picking up the winter’s collection of sticks and dead vegetation that has now appeared from under the snow. The sheer number of yardworkers was surprising, until I realized that this is the first week of compost pickup with our garbage/recycling. So, I joined in the stick, leaf, and dead stem brigade with my neighbors and our street is now extra organized and tidy, waiting for the city to get the compostable materials on Monday.

And, the best part, is that I have buttercup-yellow crocuses in the front yard, with squadrons of daffodils, tulips, and even nonbulby friends sprouting up wanting to get in on the early spring action.

The “extension” between my sidewalk and the street is a dead zone. DTE dug the entire thing up last summer to add a plastic gas main beside the street. The grass they seeded sprouted, but didn’t appear to have survived the winter. Then, just to make the empty ground decorative perhaps, someone did a partial donut in the mud, so I’ve got deep tire ruts in it too. Time to move my euonymus bushes from the front yard into the extension to cover the bare ground (photo shows post-move). Not yet sure what I’ll move into the spot the euonymus used to occupy, but there’s still more spring, and then summer to fool in the garden.