Inching Toward Spring

Just when I think spring is finally here, just when the tulips are blooming, just when the hostas begin to unfurl their leaves, winter comes rushing back.  The icy Arctic cold dropped from the north last night, but I was prepared.  Old sheets, overturned buckets, flowerpots and boxes protected the tender plants from the frost.  However, the icy blasts are keeping me from planting my garden.  The summer vegetables all like to be planted after the last frost.  Usually, that has passed, but this year is not usual!  One more night of frost is predicted.  

This weekend I will live daringly and plant my summer vegetables.  Those packets of cucumber and bean seeds are begging to be opened and planted.  I count ahead to the days when then should be mature hoping that the soil is warm enough to allow them to sprout and grow.  There is a delicate time between  the last frost and the heat of summer that allows the seeds to sprout and grow strong.  The temperature must be right, the moon needs to be in the right phase, the zodiac needs to be in the right sign.  Oh well, I will just plant and hope that at least some of the requirements will be enough to ensure healthy plants and crops.

Birthing Spring

Spring is having a difficult time arriving this year.  Following a lovely Easter day that was warm enough to be outside sitting on the deck, now sleet is clacking against the windows.  The plants are ready to burst through in full bloom, but still the cold, icy wind and rain persists.  The wild pear is barely unfolding its tiny white buds.  I can almost see them holding together against the cold rain just waiting to unfurl themselves in the warmer spring sun.

Despite the cold and rain, there is just a hint of warmth.  Maybe it is the lengthening daylight or the occasionally warm day, but I can almost feel winter loosening its grip.  Despite the calendar, we are in that shoulder season between winter and spring.  It is a birthing process.  It can't happen all at once.  We have to wait patiently while the earth struggles to renew life itself in warm days, bright flowers, verdant grasses and luscious fruits.  It will come, and in the meantime, I gather the meager spring blooms and put them in a vase as a promise of what is to come.