Ludington: Spring in Altoona is winning me over

I am glad I’m home. I can’t always say that after a visit to our family in California. It gets harder to say goodbye each time.

This year Altoona seems determined to win me over. Pulling into the drive and seeing a well-watered green lawn and perennials overachieving after the past two years of drought promises a great growing season.

We have great neighbors who take good care of our place while we’re gone. The house plants I asked to have watered looked better than when I left.

We arrived home in the afternoon of the last Monday in April. By Thursday we were ready for the lunch steak special at Johnny’s. We were surprised to find my sister and her daughter ready to have lunch there before shopping at Menard’s. That doesn’t happen in Santa Cruz.

We capped off our Thursday with Bakeris Roofing’s annual customer appreciation celebration. We had our second Bakeris roof in about 25 years put on just before our trip. That seemed worth celebrating. Jeff Bakeris and his crew put on a nice meal and had fun giving away door prizes. The best part was visiting with a couple from Urbandale at our table and finding out that we had several acquaintances in common even though we’d never met each other before.

On Friday I finished my grocery list and headed to Fareway and Hy-Vee. We ran into people we know elevating a mundane chore into a social occasion. I asked Jim to pick up the Hy-Vee items while I took a looked at the garden center in the parking lot. I wanted to load up the car with some of the brightly colored plants and garden art, but settled for bringing home some basil, cilantro and parsley. I miss having herbs outside the back door in winter.

The very best part of being home has been refilling the bird feeders and bird bath and watching the house finches, house sparrows, cardinals, mourning doves, goldfinches and downy woodpeckers return. To our surprise some not-to-be-missed spring migrants joined them. A flock of six male rose-breasted grosbeaks with their dandy black and white feathers and rosy cravats along with a few sedate brown females appeared at our feeder following our lunch at Johnny’s and stayed for several days.

Thanks, Altoona, for putting out the welcome mat. It’s good to be home.

Margaret Ludington has lived in Altoona since 1971. She is a retired staff writer and editorial writer for the Herald-Index. Margaret is a mother of two, grandmother of four. She and her husband travel frequently and have visited every state except Alaska and five Canadian provinces.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Margaret Ludington: Spring in Altoona is winning me over