It’s not ladybug season in our garden yet. But it is in our house. We have a small colony living inside a sunny south-facing wall. Little ladybugs march up the shiplap siding in our kitchen and visit with each other. It’s like a little party–a Sunday social with ladies in frilly dresses sipping tea and nibbling small eats. They can total nearly 20 at a time. It is not a nuisance. They are not wood-destroying. They are kissing our house with luck.

I have been carefully brushing them onto a piece of paper or into a dustpan and carrying them outside where they take flight into the soft spring air, their tiny wings beating so fast they are a blur of red and black. Every time I watch them fly away, I try to remember to make a wish.

The next few posts will be about dahlia bulbs and tomato starts and massive hugelkultur bed-making. Spring is afoot: The cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom. The dogwood outside our bedroom window is nearly bursting with leaves. The wedding parade is just around the corner when our fruit trees bloom into their canopies of white blossoms–their bridal gowns sweep the ground, and the bridesmaids lift up their branchy arms and start dancing.

And then the green–oh, the greening of the yard is beginning! Get ready for color to begin around here!