We don’t often get days in mid-March when the earth stokes us with warm heat, but that’s what we got Sunday, and today too. Yesterday, it was warm enough to sit outside without a jacket, without a fleece even, to gaze at the garden still littered with the remnants of last year’s leaves. This morning, my daughter, an hour-and-a-half north, texted to let me know she was wearing flip-flops. In March? Unheard of.
Already there is evidence of spring—the wrinkled foxglove leaves where they’ve seeded themselves— green rags flopping between crevices in the rocks at the back of the garden.
In the side yard, blooming snowdrops mound in the grass. Out front, purple crocuses help to hide the cement foundation under the brick porch.
We cracked the window before we went to bed last night, and woke in pre-dawn light to the soft swish of cars driving down the highway a half-mile away, and the wirt-wirt, peeb-beat of birds—sounds that come to us fresh and new each April, but this year have arrived weeks earlier.
In New England, the only thing we know to trust is the unexpected. No matter how good things are, someone will caution us to anticipate the worst. A snow storm in April doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Rarely, but in my lifetime, we’ve had snow in mid-May. Earlier this year, I cautioned myself not to celebrate this string of warm weather too much, sure if I did, I’d jinx things.
But as I parked the car in front of the town common today, and gazed at a woman dressed in a short sleeve shirt, sitting in front of the reflections mirrored in Meetinghouse Pond, I decided, on a day like this, it’s just too darn hard not to.
8 comments:
Oh my goodness!! You have a heatwave already! It's great to see the crocuses and flowers coming out though - yay! Enjoy! Take care
x
Our warm weather started much sooner. Come to think of it, we went from fall straight to spring.
The last photo with the reflection is really nice!
I hate to say it, but I've been in shorts for nearly two weeks now. Heat's off, windows open. Unfortunately, the daffodils are already gone, no crocuses or snowdrops either. They said at the beginning of this "spring" this would only last a couple of days. I think we're in the midst of summer and it's only going to get hotter. Gotta get a pool.
Ahhh... but even if the cold weather does come back to say Hi before it leaves for the year, isn't it better to celebrate the gifts while you have them instead of refusing to let yourself enjoy them because they might not stay forever?
Enjoy flip flop temps while you have them! :)
*still in hoodies and warm socks in Seattle*
Jo
In Which We Start Anew
Isn't "unheard of" exciting? Jeeze...we don't open the newspaper to read of the heard of again and again and again! Thank you Mother Nature for bringing UNHEARD OF to the headlines! I think it's awesome.
I agree with what Jo said above (and she's from my area). What a wonderful surprise for you. I hope we can share in it soon. The Canadians are passing their very cold winter on to us right now and it's still 5 degrees below normal here. I am anxious to see the sun and fear that might get short-changed again this year. Glad somebody's warm. :)
Lovely pictures. It's been hot here in Michigan too. I'm afraid we'll have a steamy summer and a lot of bugs. And I can't find any of my shorts!
My dad has always said that no good weather goes unpunished, lol. We've been having 80 degree weather here and I fully anticipate some cruel joke come April...in fact, when we lived in NH in 1982, it snowed 3ft on April 15th...now, that was NOT funny!
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