I should know better than to mope about the seasons in Minnesota; just as soon as you think you’ll never surface from the drudgery of Winter, endlessly bleak landscapes and brown for as far as you can see, Mother Nature pulls a fast one and flips the switch to Spring, complete with unbearably beautiful weather – in MARCH!! – and a drenching thunderstorm and rainfall that soothes your soul like nothing else.

And with the warmth, the rain and a pending change of attitude from the Nothingness that landed on me these past weeks (and dare I say, months?) the green that’s hidden in the Earth all year long, even through the ghastliest cold, suddenly bursts forth, coaxed from it’s slumber by 70′s and low 80′s, and sunshine that feels like it belongs in June or July. Whatever the heck happened in the past week in our fair state, it was miraculous. Utterly miraculous.  The ice went out on area lakes at a record rate, the sun shone hot and you could literally watch the Spring plants burst from the ground. I sat on our patio in shorts, sipping wine at 8:30 at night on March 17th. Clearly unprecedented. But blessedly, it tore through the fog, ripping away the Nothing and filling it with a bit more hope.

Spurred by the coming Spring, and buoyed by a {hopefully} changing outlook, I have quickly shed all manners of Winter, like flannel sheets, dark colors, knee-high boots and frosty mornings for a lighter, fresher approach that includes spotting the first Crocus, trimming away last Fall’s detritus in the flower beds and eyeing the soil in the garden to see if any of the previous seasons bounty will decide they’ve got another go of it. And in my head, I’m plotting.

Thankfully, the kind folks at Red Envelope have given me something to help spur on my dreaming.

I’m way beyond the stage of creating cool Easter baskets for my child, but if you love putting together something extraordinary for your own Easter gifts, you’ll find dozens of choices from Red Envelope. This gorgeous little ceramic herb garden was a perfect choice for my Southwest facing window in our kitchen, and a terrific option to begin some herb seeds that will eventually transplant directly in to our garden. The herb garden gives you everything you need, including soil, seeds and a sturdy set of pots to put it all together. It would be a lovely gift for anyone with a love for cooking, and a sunny window at home.