Is it real Spring this time?

Day lily leaves have emerged. They’re taller in sheltered areas that get more sun and barely out of the ground along the woods’ edges. Minnesota Wildflowers lists them as an invasive that should be eradicated. The Minnesota Extension Service provides guidance on how to plant and grow them. It seems politics isn’t the only area where we have difficulty attaining consensus. Meanwhile, in a couple of months, we’ll look for flowers on any lilies that haven’t been eradicated.

Since May begins after the weekend, we’re starting to get excited about the prospects of the return of hummingbirds and orioles and, maybe, tanagers and grosbeaks. That’s if the greedy squirrels haven’t destroyed every bird feeder we have by the time those migrants arrive. They’ve (the squirrels, not the birds) been prying covers off and chewing holes in the feeder tubes during the past couple of weeks. We’ve been feeding birds, and squirrels, for years now but this is the most obnoxious the red- and gray-furred critters have been. Another sign of a really tough winter?

hummingbirds on their way?

Photo by J. Harrington

The back yard forsythia now has some flowers and the lilac buds are beginning to swell. We’ve got our fingers crossed because, between heavy, wet snow loads and browsing by hungry deer, the bushes had a tough winter also. All of which was put in a very different perspective when I read the other night that many parts of the Midwest were, several thousand years ago, under something like two vertical miles of ice and we are, or were, officially in an interglacial period.

Unless tomorrow’s weather is exceptionally uncooperative, we’ll start our “summer” season at the local drive-in restaurant for dinner and follow that Saturday morning by picking up our first “ Spring greens” community supported agriculture share of the year. If we can manage to stay away from social media and online news for most of the weekend, we might even enjoy celebrating the return of seasonable weather, not that the season isn’t winter.

Spring

In the north country now it is spring and there 
Is a certain celebration. The thrush 
Has come home. He is shy and likes the 
Evening best, also the hour just before 
Morning; in that blue and gritty light he 
Climbs to his branch, or smoothly 
Sails there. It is okay to know only 
One song if it is this one. Hear it 
Rise and fall; the very elements of you should 
Shiver nicely. What would spring be 
Without it? Mostly frogs. But don’t worry, he

Arrives, year after year, humble and obedient 
And gorgeous. You listen and you know 
You could live a better life than you do, be 
Softer, kinder. And maybe this year you will 
Be able to do it. Hear how his voice 
Rises and falls. There is no way to be 
Sufficiently grateful for the gifts we are 
Given, no way to speak the Lord’s name 
Often enough, though we do try, and

Especially now, as that dappled breast 
Breathes in the pines and heaven’s 
Windows in the north country, 
Now spring has come, 
Are opened wide.

Mary Oliver

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