Sun and dust

I guess one advantage of living in a gloomy northern climate is you can't see the dust all winter. Then one morning, the spring sun shines through a dirty window and shows a gray coating on every level surface. And those cobwebs in the corners. The more "stuff" and books you've collected over the winter, the more dust you have.

So I was sitting at my desk yesterday morning, typing away about paintings and looking out at blue sky through a scrim of winter dirt. Enough. I got out the ladder and bottle of extra strength Windex, and did a quick job on the outside windows. Not perfect, but the house was visibly lighter when I came back in. What is it about spring cleaning that makes a woman go slightly nuts?

Here's a picture of the first daffodil, as promised. Technically, these are jonquils, the earliest miniature bloomers belonging to the family Narcissus. It seems like I've planted hundreds of the big daffodils over the years, but they peter out in our yard and don't naturalize into "drifts" like they're supposed to. But this sweet little clump comes back year after year, and just by luck I haven't accidentally dug it up.