SPRINGTIME IN MARYLAND
Catonsville, MD, Thursday, May 01, 2008

Now this is an abrupt change! From the warm tropical waters and dry-season marine haze of Bahía de Caraquéz, Ecuador, to a Maryland springtime that seems to get greener and lusher each day. The temperatures during the day are about the same as in Bahía.

Kathleen and I are house and dog-sitting for Kathleen’s parents at the ancestral manor in Catonsville, a suburb of Baltimore. This is in fact the house where Kathleen grew up, although it is the first time she has been back for springtime since she moved away years and years ago.

At present the weather is dry. The nights especially are now getting warmer and the spring blossoms seem almost to be bursting. The daffodils and tulips had already wilted and dropped by the time I arrived on April 28th, but the azaleas and dogwood are now at centre stage and the rhododendrons are about to explode everywhere.

The grass has to be cut every five days. When I start complaining about the work of maintaining a wooden sailboat, I must try to recall cutting the lawns of the various houses I have lived in.