Amazing Spring

Why are we always so amazed when bulbs start to grow, and trees start to bud in the spring? Do we always doubt that spring is really coming? Do we think spring has something better to do than arrive?

And yet every year I find myself marveling like a child when I notice the trees start to bud, and green shoots come up through the dead leaves that didn’t get raked up in the fall. I think of the dead leaves as a nice warm blankie for my tulips and daffodils. Yeah yeah, I’ll get around to raking them up. Everything sort of got put on hold last year when I had the accident and couldn’t do much. They’ll just have to go in the yard debris bin now.

The maple tree starts out reddish

March is coming in like a lamb here, with a striking number of sunny, mid-50s days. This early in the year it’s unusual, but not unwelcome. We’ve had perfect March days, sunny with clear blue skies, a little cool still but not chilly. Just as they should be.

I know a dry spring leads to a bad fire season, but honestly, we had so much rain last year I wouldn’t complain if this year was a little drier than normal.

After the Winter

By Claude McKay

Some day, when trees have shed their leaves

     And against the morning’s white

The shivering birds beneath the eaves

     Have sheltered for the night,

We’ll turn our faces southward, love,

     Toward the summer isle

Where bamboos spire the shafted grove

     And wide-mouthed orchids smile.

And we will seek the quiet hill

     Where towers the cotton tree,

And leaps the laughing crystal rill,

     And works the droning bee.

And we will build a cottage there

     Beside an open glade,

With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,

     And ferns that never fade.