No ice here, but I spent a careful afternoon cutting up and boxing and bagging a very large and rather ugly prickly pear cactus. I have three varieties out front, and this one was taking over the other two, which I like better. So with various implements of destruction from both the garden and the kitchen (tongs to move these things around) I was very careful NOT to go sprawling on the job. I didn't want to have to come over here later and explain why I was a pincushion. Perhaps the tide is turning. I got through the task with only a couple of finger pricks. It'll be a hale and hearty spring from here out!

I'm shaping the garden, and finding the volunteers out there in fine form. I suspect that the garden is going to tug at maeve pretty hard soon, if it hasn't already. Even after a fire, things grow. Sometimes they grow more.

SRS