In the Hundred Acre Wood, during the season of spring, you will find Piglet spring cleaning, beating his rugs outside his tree house. Some say spring cleaning comes from Persian New Year (first day of Spring) or the Jewish anticipation of Passover. Others say it’s just the first time you can leave the windows open. Either way, it’s the time to streamline. But how? Marie Kondo, a Japanese organizing consultant and author of The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, says we should get rid of every article of clothing that doesn’t “spark joy”. I think she has a different relationship with wardrobe than I do. Do my pants “spark joy” in me? No. But my pants do keep me from getting arrested when I go out.

Did you know that all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads? Minnesota has 14 species of “frogs”, some of which are “tree”- frogs and also the three most common “frogs”out here on the prairie we call “toads”. Some are concentrated in the SE corner, some more spread throughout the state and three (all classified as “toads”) reside in our western prairie environment.