While some people used April vacation to travel to Florida or to an exotic locale, others took advantage of the weather to sow their first rows of peas or spread grass seed on their winter-ravaged front lawn.
If you happen to be compulsive enough to keep a record of when things bloom or when you plant, you’re likely to have noticed that the signs of spring arrived a few weeks later this year – not a surprise with the winter just past. But that just makes the colors and sounds of the season even brighter and clearer – and all the more welcome.
In some homes, packets of seeds have started appearing on the kitchen table, even as the remnants of last fall’s leaves are hauled away.
It’s been a long winter followed by a change of seasons with a few false starts, but it’s probably safe to say that spring is here at last. And we’re more than ready, even if that means swatting away those harbingers of warm weather, the black flies.
Youth baseball and softball have started, in spite of early practices and games impacted by soggy fields and rain showers. The forsythia and azaleas and plenty of daffodils are in bloom, and we’re spending time thinking about where else we can add some color to our yards and gardens.
If the winter has left you a bit down, just look around. The apple blossoms are beginning to show the promise of summer’s bounty, yard sales are calling, ice cream shops are open for the season, plant sales are gearing up for Mother’s Day and beyond, and spring festivals are announcing their offerings – with the summer series of farmers markets not far behind.
Soon enough, it will be time to plant the garden, decorate the porch with hanging baskets, and watch for the early crops to begin producing in the garden.
Meanwhile, fill your bird feeders and enjoy the sights and the calls of the birds of spring. Listen to the sounds of peepers as they liven up the evenings. And slowly but surely, watch the landscape as it looks more and more like spring every day, with the browns of late winter being replaced by green, with snow a distant memory, and with spring flowers brightening our yards and kitchen tables.
However you mark the season, it’s time to finally get outside in your shirtsleeves and flip-flops after a long, cold winter. Enjoy!