Clotheslining is a big deal here in Cheapskate-Intellectual-land, so the first warm and windy day is a big deal too.  As soon as I saw the sun and smelled the breeze, I knew it was time.  So familiar and delightful to pull that cord across the yard and hook it up and tote the basket out into the day.

Warm? Yeah, somewhere in the 40s, which is enough to get Midwesterners and Midwestern transplants all excited. Windy? Yeah, a little much, but not bad. Smell? Yeah.  Hard to describe, but everybody everywhere has their own version of this. Here it’s the way soil and wet grass and the plants that are just thinking about rising again are stirring and thawing and releasing the water and life that have been locked in scentless frozenness for the last few months.

The return of the senses.  Yes, spring is on the way.