Mar 25 2013
On the Verge
The green shoots of day lilies push up relentlessly through the half frozen soil in my front yard, as if seasonal change is inevitable. The tips of some are frostbitten, brown and withered, but they keep coming anyway. A recent big dump of snow convinces the winter weary among us that spring will never come. Yet in some ways it’s already here.
The buds on the maple tree in my back yard are red and swollen. The sap has been running for weeks. A red-winged blackbird – migrating north to be sure – landed in it a few days ago. A cardinal sings loudly from the top of another tree, establishing his territory early. There are a lot of squirrel tracks in the snow now. The snow itself is slowly disappearing in a barely discernible melt-off driven more by sunlight than warm temperatures. Yeah, to those of us paying careful attention, the spring season has already begun.
“See how the snow is drying up?” I kept telling my wife Judy yesterday, to the point where she grew annoyed with me. I couldn’t help myself. My favorite season is on the verge, and all I want to do is sing about it as the wild birds do. One daylong rain will make it obvious to everyone. The Vernal Equinox is behind us. The natural world is awakening from its long sleep.
4 responses so far
4 Responses to “On the Verge”
Signs of spring are poppin’ up all over. A couple of weeks ago I saw my personal indicator of springtime: about two dozen turkey vultures wheeling overhead. Certainly not as glamorous as robins and daffodils, but hey, I’m sticking with the buzzards.
We got 7 in. Of verge snow here in Ohio yesterday and the robins and I are ticked!!
Spring comes slowly, with plenty of setbacks. Here in Vermont, on average, it snows twice in April.
Walt, thought I’d report in from Minnesota where we’re on the verge of spring as well, golden-crowned kinglets in the yard alongside remnant snow drifts. And thought I’d add this haiku by Basho (in David Young’s new collection) because I thought of you when I read it:
Spring’s first blossoms
seventy-five more years
onto my life span