To me, Spring has returned by taking baby steps. The first day of spring was March 19; there were many days that were warm and felt very "spring-like." I was starting to see wildflowers bloom and small butterflies flittering about. Daffodils and the wildflowers that I saw blooming were ones that normally bloom in the early spring. I was so excited because it seemed like winter was finally over. I wanted to see flowers and butterflies everywhere. Mike and Emily warned me each night, on the channel 4 weather report, not to get in a hurry to plant anything just yet, and I did not plant a thing. When I was a teacher, I would remind my students that one warm day in March does not mean we can quit wearing our coats!
It seems to me that winter has lasted much longer than usual this year. I became very impatient with the weather. Maybe because of the many cool days, the blooms stayed prettier longer. I enjoyed their blooms but was impatient with the cooler temps because I wanted to see more wildflowers blooming. I wanted the trees to put out their leaves, but most only put out their blossoms. The cold winds blew them off leaving behind the tiniest hint of leaf buds. Ecclesiastes 3:1, one of my favorite verses, reminds me that "For everything there is a season." It doesn't matter if I am impatient with cold weather, spring will happen when it is supposed to happen.
Now that April is here, surely, as the last lines from the poem "Daffodowndilly," by A. A. Milne says, "She turned to the sunlight; and shook her yellow head; and whispered to her neighbour: 'Winter is dead.'" It will feel like spring. I only hope that we will actually have a spring, with spring-like temperatures, gentle rains and light breezes. Of course, we will have to deal with all kinds of pollen floating in the air, pesky bugs reappearing, and dewy mornings that you have to wear your rain boots to walk the dogs. There will be the sounds of lawns being mowed, birds singing at 6:00am and the decision whether to run your A/C during the day or the heat at night. I would rather deal with those issues than another string of cold, overcast days. April Fool's Day is April 1st and I hope Mother Nature doesn't play a trick on us by skipping spring and going straight to summer. That, then becomes a whole other post about "What Happened to Spring?"
--Tina