3/11/08
Here in the north country, Winter is very long. Some years longer than others; this year, heading into its fifth dreary month. Those of us who favor plants over skis and snowmobiles watch the calendar obsessively and start counting down to Spring as soon as we can believe it might come again.
I start counting on February 1. By then, returning daylight has becomes apparent. Birds have subtlely changed their behavior. Sunshine has acquired the power to warm your cheek and melt ice on the walkways. The shortest month, though, always feels longest. Nevertheless, you can tell that the world has turned.
In March, the roller-coaster ride begins! Our region, historically, gets the bulk of its snow during this nail-biting countdown month. One year we got five feet in ten days right after a melt exposed the lawn. Another year, I drove to a neighboring town and experienced rain, sleet, snow, thunder and lightning, hail, fog, wind, and sunshine in 25 minutes. Oh yes, and mud.
As of today’s calendar, we’re 10 days from the official season turn. But you would never know by what’s outside. There’s a foot of white cement over four inches of opaque ice that can’t be cracked using a rock bar; the driveway is a luge run to the mailbox. Yet the day’s sunshine exposed a lip of a rock wall and grass I haven’t seen since November, and a song sparrow arrived in the yard. Objects that yesterday looked like white mushrooms today revealed themselves as cars, garden gear, or debris piles from their emerging peaks and corners. The last ledge of compressed snow on the roof released with a crack, whoosh, and whump! like a guillotine blade into the five-foot-high snow mound on the deck. Out the kichen windows, it was still broad daylight when I started cooking supper.
The world may not be green yet, but as far as I’m concerned, Spring has sprung!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, growth, spring — Carolyn Haley
|
Like Carolyn, I live in New England. Here it is March 19th and I’m watching snow fall … yet again. We’ve really gotten hammered this year!
I share her excitement when it begins to melt, and all things seem new, fresh, possible. Springtime is filled with energy and hope, much of which is captured in Open Your Heart With Gardens, a good read even for those of us who have black (as opposed to green) thumbs!
Comment by jcezanne — March 19, 2008 @ 10:17 am