Spring Field in Springfield

These are the first flowers I've spotted in my neighborhood this year. They're growing in one of the vest-pocket front yards on Mattoon Street, behind just the kind of cast-iron fence that I would like to put around the Emory House. The fence, unfortunately, is slipping further and further down the list as other priorities surface. The flashing needs repair on both chimneys, for example. The exterior walls in the front part of the house need to be insulated. The basement should be waterproofed. I'd love to sand the kitchen floor and stain it a lighter color. It seems to be soft pine with a dark brown colored varnish, very scuffed and messy looking. Most of the walls are a dead grayish-white with a matte finish, impossible to clean. On the other hand, a couple of ominous cracks in the plaster ceilings should probably be attended to before any painting gets done....

One of these days, I'm going to wake up and say to myself, What am I doing with this monstrous money pit? I won't do my children any favors and saddle them with twelve rooms of mahogany, thousands of books, and a cellarful of old junk. At that point I'll start thinking of a very small stone farmhouse in Provençe. But meanwhile, maybe I'll at least plant the crocuses.