First it melts, then it flows...

I’m already starting to envision waterfowl, red-winged blackbirds, and sandhill cranes beginning to get restless and warming up for their return flight to northern waters. This afternoon there’s serious melting going on where the sun shines. Although this has been a mild, dry winter so far, it’s also been very cloudy. Sunshine and warmth are a wonderful alternative to what we’ve experienced recently.

a bouquet of forced forsythia blossoms

Photo by J. Harrington

The leaf buds on the maple trees in front of the house are showing the slightest early indications of swelling and adding color, although I don’t expect leaf out for several months. It’s time to keep our eyes open in the  local shops for bunches of forsythia stems we can put in water in the house and force to bloom months before the bushes in the front and back yards flower.

I’m only too aware that the toughest weeks of winter can occur between now and late April. This year I intend to do my best to enjoy a long, leisurely, beautiful spring even if I have to bring it inside to do so. I’m pretty sure I’ll be in better shape to deal with the world’s problems after some concentrated self-car, including bouts of nature bathing. 

A Light exists in Spring

by

Emily Dickinson

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.

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