Spring is springing

Spring is always such a welcome relief from the drearies of winter, though our friends who live in the mountains of the northwest would argue that we never really have winter down here. There's something about spring mornings and evenings that seems to breath new life into everything. The birds and frogs are louder, the new grass is greener and the new leaves on the trees are greener still. The aroma in the air from the flowering trees is intoxicating and makes yard work seem like holiday fare. The heat of July will bring us back into reality in that department!

It's also one of the busiest times for us. New Leanin' Tree paintings are going in the studio and new art is being pulled, evaluated, captioned and selected for the t-shirt line, the Back 40. This year, we've added even more projects - like writing two books and getting the online store stocked and marketed.

It's fun and exciting and demanding and chaotic. Just getting everything we have to do in some kind of doable order is a challenge. Mike, obviously, is the only one who can do the paintings so he's safe from a lot of the hum drum stuff like scanning, sizing, and cataloging the art. But he still has to cut and prepare boards for the new pieces, sketch them on paper and then sketch them again on the boards - so I guess you could say we each have our share of routine work.

It can all be pretty overwhelming. But there's nothing better for clearing your mind than cranking up the old riding lawn mower and mowing for an hour or crawling around a flower bed, pulling weeds. It's just you, God and nature.

Works every time.