3/18/08
It’s nice to be wrong sometimes.
Normally I hate being wrong. It’s frustrating, embarrassing, and often sets you back.
But sometimes being wrong leads to a happy surprise — like today, when I discovered that I had flagged the wrong day on my calendar for the vernal equinox (a.k.a., first day of Spring). I thought it would be Friday the 21st. In fact, the official source says it will arrive 1:48 a.m. EDT, March 20. A day sooner!
(For those of you who share this little obsession, here’s a website that counts down to the equinox with a clock ticking off the seconds: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/html/sprgcdown.html)
A different calendar in the house puts the equinox another day closer. Whatever the true time and date, it’s for the astronomical equinox, which pertains to sun position. The layperson definition is “when day and night are equal” — 12 hours each. And that phenomenon occurs today!
So it’s (un)officially the Up season now. For the next three months, everything will be in the grow mode, everywhere in the northern hemisphere. This is the most exciting time of year for all creatures from humans to honeybees, as well as for all plants.
Here in Vermont, we get proof of the change with the onset of sugaring season. One day near the equinox, when sunshine and temperatures combine just right, the sugar maples start pumping sap. It began three days ago, brought to our attention by smoke and steam billowing from the motley assortment of sugar shacks strewn around the landscape.
We knew it was coming because, during the preceding weeks, the woods sprouted miles of blue and black tubing, and collection tanks appeared at roadside. Some people still stud their trees with old-fashioned buckets. No matter how they gather the sap, industrious folk gather together in the sugar houses for marathon boiling (and socializing) sessions for two to four weeks. Strangers are welcome to hang around and watch, always leaving as friends.
The trees know better than the calendar when Spring really does arrive. The running of their sap signals the opening of garden season.
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, yard, plants, spring — Carolyn Haley
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