Hope springs eternal

When the Oklahoma Indian territory was opened up for settlement, some of the people didn't wait until they fired the starting gun for the land rush. They slipped in and staked out their claims, and hence the name "Sooners" is till used today.

I think I need to go look up the family genealogy, because I am beginning to wonder if some of the genetics of the early claim jumpers have been passed on to me.

It used to be a fairly routine progress; I planted my potatoes on St. Patrick's Day and then, at the proper time, the rest of the garden soon followed. but each year with the advent of these warmer winters, I have started jumping the gun like the Oklahoma settlers. This year the potatoes, cabbages and onions all went into the dirt around the first of March.

This hurry-up attitude has brought me around to a second saying, which is, "You can't fool Mother Nature." With 19 tomato plants already in the ground and the cabbage flourishing, I decided the growing season must be upon us, so I bought three crapemyrtle bushes and put one in front of the house, one on the south side, and one back to the west with anticipation of having various flowers blooming by late in the summer. I got them just in time to have them transplanted and watch Mother Nature greet them with two successive nights of freezing temperatures. The crape myrtles now look like some form of desert plant with woody stems and no leaves. My potatoes have black leaves, and six of the 19 tomato plants look like weeping willows as they droop to the ground.

All in all, it has been a tough spring so far, but the weatherman tells me we have a glorious week ahead, so to quote another old saying,"Hope springs eternal in the breast of man."