Ah, Spring!

I am not one of those people who is just itching for cold weather to scoot and for spring to arrive. I know spring leads to summer with its heat and, frankly, I am mostly a cold weather person. The winter this past year has been most peculiar in the northeast U.S. We had a warm December (in fact, my husband MOWED on December 1--no kidding!), a warm January, then WHAM! a really cold February and mostly a cold March.

Plus we had two crazy snow storms--a Valentine's Day snow which ruined many romantic dinners, not to mention restaurant business, where they count on those dinners. And then the St. Patrick's Day snow which ruined many parades. Commerce has been taking a beating from the weather--first not enough snow, so snow blowers sat unbought, anyone who depended on snow-plowing for income was stuck; then too much snow. Remember, I live in Pennsylvania of I-78 fame--trucks and cars stuck for DAYS because state agencies couldn't decide what to do in a snow/sleet/freezing rain storm.

But today swept away my lack of longing for spring. It was a lovely warm but sweetly breezy day.

It was the kind of day that you could hear the voices of children as they poured out of houses to play, and take new puppies on their first walks around the neighborhood.

It was the kind of day where you could hear the waves of geese long before they hove into view, with their long V formations, heading north.

It was the kind of day where you could hear a raucous chorus of birds chirping all over the neighborhood. I watched an aerial display of two robins--courting? fighting over territory? or just giddy with warm breezes.

It was the kind of day where if you listened very carefully you could hear crocuses (croci?) popping out of the ground and opening, along with grape hyacinths.

It was the kind of day where you could almost hear the earth sigh contentedly as the sun slipped behind the western houses in the neighborhood.

It was the kind of day where as evening approached, I slipped back in the house, having popped in and out in response to all the wondrous noises and sights outside.

There are probably thousands of poems about spring, but here is a lovely one by Katherine Mansfield called "Very Early Spring":

The fields are snowbound no longer;
There are little blue lakes and flags of tenderest green.
The snow has been caught up into the sky—
So many white clouds--and the blue of the sky is cold.
Now the sun walks in the forest,
He touches the bows and stems with his golden fingers;
They shiver, and wake from slumber.
Over the barren branches he shakes his yellow curls.
Yet is the forest full of the sound of tears....
A wind dances over the fields.
Shrill and clear the sound of her waking laughter,
Yet the little blue lakes tremble
And the flags of tenderest green bend and quiver.

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Welcome, Happy Spring.