Spring?

We're still a couple of weeks out from the official start date so I don't want to jinx it and say spring has sprung, but today at least was warm and sunny and the outdoors beckoned us all. Booker ran circles around the yard and lounged happily on the porch. House cat Alice Cooper edged her grey self out into the big world for a moment. We tossed around the football and took a walk in the woods.

I found a couple of plastic shopping bags near the trail on our walk that set an impromptu trash pickup into motion. We filled both bags with chunks of foam, plastic bottles, strips of other plastic bags, enough to fill both in a matter of minutes without even really trying. A bit sad. There were lots of little liquor bottles and beer cans, Swisher Sweets packages--evidence of sneaky teenagers cutting loose out back while we sleep unaware.

Once I started really looking, and while the woods are still brown and crunchy and bare from winter's slumber, I found lots of trash, disposable and otherwise, tucked here and there, in sight and out. And I found some rusty crustys that had been hiding right behind my house all along.

I don't know that I will keep these things, but I was drawn of course to the weathered metal of the chair springs and foggy glass of the bottle. I'm not sure what the longer metal piece is. It's heavy and has a hook on one end and almost looks like one handle to an old manual tiller or something. I left it out on the porch, but I brought the springs in and tucked a few postcards in the wires.

I rinsed the bottle off only to find, as I suspected, that it isn't particularly a gem, just another castoff from clandestine teenage revelry. It could probably still be altered with some sheet music and an old key or something. Stumbling on these items with a bit of potential steps out my back door has compelled me to look more closely on my next wander through the woods. I'm sure to find more trash, but I just might find a treasure, too. Springs themselves and signs of spring--we found both today.