Spring fever

On Monday, February 16, I sent every last word of the Book ms. electronically to the editor.  Wow, what a feeling!  Is this why we write?  Because it feels so good when we stop?  I know it's not quite over yet; there will still be those grueling author queries from the copy editor.   But for now it was time to celebrate.

This is what I did over the next week:  saw four movies (in preparation for the Academy Awards ceremony), went to a concert at the Disney Hall, enlisted my teenage granddaughter to help me do some serious gardening, and hosted an intimate Oscar party.

It was sheer giddy bliss.  This was what I had THOUGHT retirement would be like.

Even the weather is cooperating.  It is sunny and warm, and everything is blooming, even the flamboyant amaryllis that was just a bulb in a pot when I got it for Christmas.  When it finally flowered this week, the stem was more than three feet tall, and it was so top-heavy that it kept capsizing.  I finally had to cut it off and put it in a vase.  

The daffodils are nearly finished, but the wisteria vine is beginning to dazzle with its purple

 flowers that are so glorious for their brief life each spring.  

I even tackled the rampant bougainvillea in the backyard, hacking off diseased limbs until the green recycle bin would hold no more.  

And today I committed to another writing project.  I'll be doing an article about library teen employment programs for Library Trends, using my work with the LEAP program at the Free Library of Philadelphia as a kind of case study. Flowers want to grow.   Words want to be written.