New Year, New Season, New Hope

 Hola everyone!  I hope you are all well and have made it through the Year from Hell No. 2 - 2020.  Shame on me for not having posted anything since December 2020, wow.  Time is passing much too quickly.

I've been busy doing spring cleaning inside - and outside, I've put in a lot of hours.  We had an incredible streak of far above normal warm weather for about 10 days and I worked outside daily for at least a couple of hours each day.  We had a lot of wind storms in March.  This year March did come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, and April has brought April showers.  No flowers yet other than a small patch of wild violets (sooooo pretty!) but boy oh boy, the rain we've received sure has greened up the lawn and with the warm weather, perennials are bursting through the earth much earlier than usual including through layer upon layer of still unraked molding leaves in the flower beds I haven't had a chance to clean out.  It's been raining for the past 3 plus days, off and on, and the garden beds are too wet and soggy to work in and the lawn is too wet and soggy to walk on, even though it already needs to be cut!   

I've been limited to running out whenever the rain halts for a few hours to sweep up the patio every few days and the driveway.  I am, however, hopeful that all the rain will wash away a lot of the gunk that was left behind by city crews in March who were a few houses down on the street fixing yet another burst water pipe.  Boy, we sure do need that Infrastructure Bill.  Milwaukee water pipes are over 100 years old, and showing their age.  Because of the pandemic our tax base has been decimated and we don't have the funds to do a wholesale repiping of the city, even though it needs repiping  - badly.  This is the second burst pipe in about 18 months, and the subsequent mess of inches of clay, small rocks and stones left behind in the gutters for we the homeowners to deal with.  Thus far I haven't touched the gunk, hoping first that melting feet high snow banks would wash most of the stuff away (nope); and then that the rains would wash most of the stuff away (nope).  Sigh.

Every year there seems to be more to do, but it could just be that I'm slower now than I was 6 years ago when I moved into this, my "retirement" home.  This year I'm facing 70 head on - and I DO NOT LIKE IT ONE BIT.

Sooooo - let me show you a few things:

Welcome to the new color palette for my living room decor for spring and summer 2021.  It's done already, I worked on it off and on last month, but I haven't taken photos of it yet.  I promise I'll post them.  It's the brightest and most "unlike me" decor I've ever introduced into any of my beloved Maisons Newton.  It makes my eyes pop every time I enter my living room, and I LOVE it!  I keep thinking this must have something to do with psychological damage I unknowingly sustained during the 13 plus months of pandemic hunkering down.  Ya think?