Spring days

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.

Henry Van Dyke, Fisherman's Luck, 1899

The first day of spring has come and gone. Mother Nature teased us with a few spring days, and now seems to have had the last April Fools laugh on most of the country! Early April finds us with record lows and frostbit tulips, their unopened blooms hanging low and frozen solid. Finds us scrambling for coats, packed away too early on a March 80 degree day and listening to reports of April snow, a mere 100 miles from us and yet too close for comfort, piling 6 inches deep. So with my winter coat, shivering from the strong spring winds that sweep this prairie state, I set off in search of signs that spring hasn't abandoned us...and found plenty of simple joys in my search! Bright pink buds on the redbud trees, untouched by the frosty nights, yellow and white tulips, tucked in close to the house and saved from an early death by the warmth of the mulch piled fresh, ferns pushing aside the frosty spring smelling earth and peeking above ground, having a look around before starting their climb upwards. It's coming, that's for certain....the spring that I love. Soon this last lick from winter will pass and the days that give joy to my soul will descend upon us....days full of too many simple joys to list. So, Mother Nature, I'll consider this a lesson in patience. I'll keep the seeds in their packets and the garden tools in the shed, my coat on it's hook and my furnace on a little longer....with the knowledge that winter is about to blow itself out like a candle and spring days are a short time away.