Spring Worms

March 10

Spring is coming for sure now. We are outside in the back yard all afternoon. There are tiny buds on all the plants and the air feels full of potential. We turn over the dirt in our garden bed and find beautiful pink worms. My first grader holds them and laughs as they tickle her hand. She is so afraid of insects but worms are no problem. We set them down in the dirt and watch them work their way back under ground. "Look look they're almost gone!" she shouts.

We are ready to plant, but what? We need grandpa's advice. We heard last weekend that he has set aside a bit of garden for the girls to work when we visit this summer. They rake and hoe, dig and water. There is never an end to the fun they have exploring his backyard vegetable garden. One year they collected snails off the lettuce and instead of killing them built them a house out of flower pots. Every day my girls would head out to check on the snails and give them a nice fat lettuce leaf. One morning they were gone. Escaped! I suspected the pet chicken.

So later we will call grandma and grandpa in Italy. We have potatoes in the refrigerator that we grew last year. We've been waiting for his green light to take them out and plant them. I have a feeling it will be soon.