Bleeding hearts in the late spring garden

Everything around us is finally greening, and the almost mind-numbing dullness of browns that is Ohio in late winter and early spring recedes as the green advances, giving us a most yearned for sight. The temperatures are still not very warm (we started in the upper 40s this morning) but, alas, it is Ohio and we can't have it all.

At last, classes ended yesterday and while now there are piles and piles and piles of grading that must get done, at least that beloved but exhausting takes-it-all-out-of-me part of my job is over, and I get a rest from it for a few months. That comes as a most welcome respite after what was one grueling year.

Still, there is a bitter sweetness to the end of a school year, and it's so rewarding to have the students in all three classes say they didn't want their class to end, that they enjoyed it and felt they got something out of it, and that they would miss being in class (although not for long, I'm sure, since they, like me, will hopefully move seamlessly into their non-college lives and will enjoy the summer break, too). Most moving was to hear some say that the class has helped them not only learn about literature but also about themselves, and about worlds they didn't know existed.

Ultimately, it's a great relief to know that the students not only noticed but appreciated the not-little effort that it cost me to keep three classes going this semester, and that it paid off because everyone, the students and myself, ended up with a good feeling about it all.

Given that yesterday marked the end of teaching for now, today was a break day that started early when I went to the farmer's market with a friend and came back with a bounty of freshly cut asparagus, which we ate this evening for dinner with my husband's world-famous hash brown potatoes.

After the farmer's market, I left my small college on the hill bound for the capital city for my weekly hair appointment and a few errands. I really like the days when I get a few hours to myself to do things I enjoy, like driving while listening to my audiobooks (I just finished Barbara Walters' Audition and have now moved on to Toni Morrison's A Mercy), and stopping at Starbucks for my obligatory grande, decaf 3-Splenda, latte.

I also made a planned stop at my favorite nursery, to which I was introduced many years ago by my green-thumbed mother-in-law, and where I bought my first spring pansies a few weeks ago. There I bought a fragrant pink peony that is still in the bud, a bleeding heart in dire need of replanting, and my favorite herbs: rosemary, Italian parsley and basil. When I got back home, I planted them in pots and placed them all in a sunny spot, which gives me at least the illusion of having a garden. This will be the first time in years that I don't have one because there is no garden in our little apartment near the woods.

But this will certainly do. As will that sweet, sweet promise of leisure that keeps flirting with me as we move closer and closer to the actual end, once all is said and done, of yet another, but in many ways a very first of firsts, academic year.