Embrace the spring!

Embrace the spring!

Its time to chase away the remnants of cabin fever and embrace sweet springtime. Work and play all have their place and in that order now.

We will give this yard the first complete cleanup since late last fall, in the morning.

Pieces of litter fly from our trash service truck, frequently, as it rolls around the corner. It seems nicer to pick it up than complain.

The strong winds send us a few surprises as well. Recently, I found a piece of my incoming mail well beyond my mailbox. Someone must have lost their hold before their arm reached the box.

Sometimes dog walkers or other persons walking by stop to say a few words, though neighboring is not like it was in the good old days.

There are no swings on the front porches. Truth is, the folks in this neighborhood do not have sizable porches nor nothing much to talk about until we wind them up with our friendly approach.

I was digging around in the garage when I ran across nice fishing gear that did not even make it out of the plastic covering. We never seemed to find time to use the items.

Several years ago, in springtime we fished at Craig Park and our pit ponds.

We also enjoyed fishing at Croy’s Creek with my brother Johnny Lynch and my sister-in-law Hazel.

Now we cannot traipse through the brambles nor climb pit hills like we once did. We still take nature walks and continue to nourish our minds with everything good that matters to us.

Mushrooms like we had an abundance of on our property sell for top dollar in the market place here. They are not on our menu now.

We eat leafy greens from the supermarket. Both of us helped our moms snip dishpans full to the brims of wild lettuce, dandelion, mustard greens and other edible spring mix, from the grassy earthen floor. We almost lost our appetites washing them clean and sending bugs to their doom.

A strong smell of vinegar permeated the wilted contents in the bowl before us and beyond the table. That springtime fix sure was a wake-up call for the bowels!

All passed the palate in a rush with the help of a few gulps of Royal Crown, Kool-Aid or buttermilk.

I saved my rejects for the free-range chickens and ducks. Our old female beagle sniffed a wad of it once or twice and turned the leftovers down. She even passed on the bits of rendered side pork. The uncured thick, fatty bacon bits did smell nice sizzling in the skillet.

My brother loved tops of wild onions, another strong edible that wakes-up in springtime.

One day our friends, Ray and Clara, came riding in from Syracuse on their Harley to visit us. While Ray was leisurely walking around the pasture with my young brother and me, he remarked, “Something smells like a dead human. I am familiar that smell!” Imagine that!

They separated and searched the grassy and weedy acreage and came up short of a discovery.

It was clear to me what Ray, the city dweller, picked up in his nostrils. John Wayne had been eating the tops off of those green onions.

On later days he chewed on young green sassafras twigs, another favorite of the country boy.

We kept Ray in the dark as long as we could contain our laughter and then I solved the mystery. Our friend did not ask for proof.

The clock tells me its time to call it a day.

I can be reached by phone at 317-286-7352 or drop me a line to 649 South Grant Street, Brownsburg, IN., 46112.