Clean for a day

I was so energized by my excursion yesterday, that today I started right out with tidying up my house from top to bottom. The wood floors were swiffled, the carpet vacuumed. the bathroom cleaned, the laundry done, and I still had energy for a walk around the neighborhood. I titled it "Clean for a day", because even the best-run house cannot maintain an immaculate state for more than a day. There are dishes in the sink at this moment, and the dried laundry hasn't yet been put away. My husband has left his slippers in the middle of the floor, and we will soon be making a cake and all of the clutter that entails. But, as the title says, it was clean for a day.
I got a bit of a shock this morning when perusing the local paper, finding the obituary of a long-ago acquaintance who is my age, and who died alone in her sleep. She had a productive and satisfying life, and one cannot feel that she missed out on happiness at departing at this particular time. According to the obituary, she had been very active even up to the end. Although in later years we have lost touch, It gave me cause to ponder the ironic turns that one's life can take.
But back to today's events. When we went on our walk, we took a shortcut down a back lane and sneaked across our neighbor's driveway to make the walk shorter. There are beautiful flowers everywhere. The wild iris are blooming in profusion and banks of forget-me-nots are seen everywhere. Later a quail egg was found beside the road, empty, so the egg had already hatched. We will soon be seeing the little cavalcade of mother, father and babies scurrying down the street. We look forward to seeing them every year.
Now to making the cake. Best wishes to everyone! To all mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!