Spring- Where Art Thou?
It seemed to be happening….March came in like a lion with cold and wind like we expect but then we were lulled with a few warmer days soon after believing the end of another Mitten worthy winter was on its way out.
Picture taken March 21 and crocus had been in bloom over a week~
We Mitteneers should have known better ! And we farm lifers know in our hearts not much good will come from a Spring being sprung too early- but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH already!!
Picture taken March 23 but could have been duplicated multiple times in the following weeks~
Today, I timidly let hope bloom in my heart that the week ahead will bring some consistent warmer temperatures. I will not be tempted to expect mid 60’s and even the blessed 70 degrees possible over the weekend to be on-going, but I will enjoy it and inhale deeply the scents of the ground warming and the feathery spring green that faintly paints the valley vistas. The thing is, somehow this past winter, though not the worst we OC natives have seen, has been in ways brutal. It may be personal, as collectively among the people I love, there has been too much death and harsh happenings, but the grip of the cold wind and the grim grayness seemed to take hold and not let up.
As in eons past, the promise of new life in the earth as Spring shakes her sleepy head is a thing to celebrate. In farming, there has to be the dormancy, the cold and harshness of the winter to yield the next life in the branch or the sprout from the fall seed planting. So in life must we move on. Not forgetting those we do not have by our sides to celebrate the arrival of another springtime in our beautiful community, but because of them and who they helped us become. The tug of winter and loss remain in the periphery, but as we plant and watch the lovely blooms and the new crops develop, we will celebrate the life we have been given today and reminisce on those who dwell now in continual newness of life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ” Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
~Photo taken by my treasured friend Joan Ramseyer April 13, 2015 ~
Song of Solomon 2: 11-12 “…for behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land”