Spring. Nothing is predictable this year. Several farmers in the area are cutting and baling hay already. I've never seen them put up hay this early. That sweet smell took me by surprise last week as I drove the back road home, and sure enough there were the tractors out in the field rolling the long rows of cut grass into large, round bales.
Another sweet smell greeted me in the last few days too. Asphalt. Yes, the acrid bite of hot tar and the crunch of the fine pieces slapping the side of the car were beautiful. It means that the pot holes that have plagued us all winter on the country roads are gone. No more swerving to keep from being swallowed up by the big holes. No more driving on the wrong side to find a bit of pavement still intact and not totally eaten away. I had become so used to avoiding the pot holes that I find it difficult to just drive our roads normally!
What is becoming a perennial sign of spring here is the defoliation of the pine trees. We have an annual infestation of small worms that eat every bit of green from the pines except the new shoots at the end of the branches. Right now the trees look ruined and dead. They just hold out their tender green candles and hope to survive the worms. With any luck, they will be back in full needle in a few weeks. Right now, they are a pitiful sight. The foresters say there is nothing we can do outside of an aerial spraying, and who would want to be coated in insecticide?
So spring continues, and I wait for the next surprises it will bring.
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