Muddy Puppy Feet & Springs' First Robin

Spring is in the air here in Iowa. I have fresh trails of muddy puppy feet in the kitchen and hubby saw the first Robin yesterday! Those are sure signs that SPRING is returning from her LONG Wynter nap.

Poor garden... it's so drab and scraggly now. I've been watching the snow drifts stubbornly melt from my backyard garden through my kitchen window for a month. IT'S FREE AGAIN. Now we need a couple bright, sunny days with a good wind to dry it out. I walked through it today only to find out it's still too soggy to play in. I did walk through to take some pictures to start mapping out my plans for the year, though. Do you see that little patch of green on the upper left corner? It's alive!

I can't wait to see the green vines begin to stretch out again. My favorite barrels are waiting for new growth. This large one is always filled with a green sweet potato vine. It will spread into the tree and drape down across the ground in a couple months. Of course, my Castor Beans will soon tower over the area. They are my imaginary Palm Trees.
My little barrel will be filled with a red potato vine, with a "Palm Tree" towering in the background.
My medium barrel gets to be moved this year. Too much shade produced a weak and scraggly vine last year. As long as she doesn't fall apart, she'll be dragged over in front of the huge hollow trunk I sat in the back of the garden.
That's the back of my Garden Angel. She stands over 6 feet tall and her wingspan is about 5 feet wide. She holds my purple whatchamacallit vine.

I have a couple dolls to finish up today and some fabric orders to ship, then I'm off to the post office ---- then off to my rose garden to look for signs of life.