The Greening

The air is full of just budded, misty green leaves.  

Spring peepers fill the marshy spots with their incessant ringing.

Scents come alive and drift into memories. First loves and lost loves. Places we've left behind.

The smell of my toddler's neck slicked with humid curls. 

The sight of my four-year old's excitement over a newly sprouted plant.

Spring holds all of these things.

June Days

My husband, my daughter, and I were all born in June. 

 

It really is the loveliest month.  Fresh greens, soft blooms and butterflies abound.  The days are warm but not oppressive and the nights are cool.  The air is sweet, and all of the birds start to sing their summer time songs.

 

The mosquitoes are certainly terrible this year, and I am finding myself inside more often,  but when the wind is up and the sun is shining, it's simply perfect.

 

 

I'm Here

...and so are the bugs.

 

I find the days passing so fast lately, and I hardly have time to sit down and write.  Or think, for that matter.

 

I have five more weeks before my due date, and things are feeling pretty busy right now.

 

The greening of the land has begun - leaves are springing out on the trees and with the next few days of rain fore casted, the grass and other plants will start growing very quickly.

 

I hope that you are enjoying these lovely days that spring has finally bestowed upon us.  Right now everything is alive with possibility, all is fresh and green, but soon enough the summer heat will be here.  Enjoy these last few weeks of spring while you can.

 

 

Change

Now that the temperatures are consistently above zero, we can see REAL changes start.

 

The lake is blackening, robins are singing and the snow continues to melt.  Soon, the fields will begin to green, amphibians will be active - spring peepers will start calling and the roadsides will be studded with turtles on the move, and the first leaves on trees will pop.

 

This time last year, daffodils were already in bloom.  Not so this year, but very good things come to those who wait.  Anticipation can make the reward that much more sweet, and the lush, green spring and early summer that is coming will be sweet indeed.

 

 

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

I'm sitting here writing this and listening to the rain pour down.  Complete with thunder and lightning, even.  Not our first thunderstorm of the year, (strangely we had some thunder and rain when there was still ice on the lake and snow on the ground), but our first spring thunderstorm.

Today will be a rainy day - grey and drizzly, with periods of more intense rain scattered throughout. We need the rain.  Long drizzly days build reservoirs deep in the soil to protect growing things against the dry days of summer to come.  Rain at this time of year puts a fresh sheen on all the new green.  It washes clean all the grit and grime that has accumulated over the winter.  Nature's street sweeper.

I love mornings like this. Quiet, and calm. No need to get up and rush and get busy. I always feel like I need to go and do when the weather is good.  Time to regroup. Time to drink another cup of coffee and read a little more while the baby naps.

We're Having a Heat Wave...

...a tropical heat wave.

It's 24C out there right now!  Just got back from the park, to which I wore shorts and flip flops.  Is this real life?

I'm still waiting, though.  It's out there.  Winter's last hurrah.  I can feel it.  Out running in the evening, when I pass into the shadows, or run by a snowy hollow, the cold is there, laying in wait.  It hits me, fresh and shocking, a reminder of early spring snowstorms to come.

My husband thinks we have at least a late March, and maybe an April storm in store for us.  I'm not sure what will happen, but I do  know that as soon as I put out my spring porch decorations, snow is sure to come.

I'll let you know my plans.

All Signs Point to Spring

I know that I have been spared this winter.  Wintry weather came on late, serious snow and cold snaps were few and far between.  There were strings of absolutely gorgeous days.  I fell in love with winter. 

And now, it seems, we are blessed with an early spring.  I know that there is a very real possibility of snow again, and everything will freeze up and grey days will drag.

But for now, early spring has arrived on Maple Lake.

As we waved goodbye to daddy this morning I noticed the chipmunks out from hibernation and scurrying around the front garden.  Several robins were up in the trees singing their "up, down, up down, up a little more, down again" song.  Last night I was out for a run and heard red-wing blackbirds.

I haven't managed to get out for a walk in the woods yet - I'm rather tethered to the ol' homestead having a one year old attached to me most of the time.  I have managed to poke around the house, though.  There isn't any new growth out there that I have observed, but mosses and other evergreen plants look particularly vibrant when finally free of their snowy cocoon.

My husband announced the other night that he "smelt it".  I said, "that disgusting rotten mud smell outside?" and he said, "no, spring.  It smells like eight years old".  How poetic.  And he's right.  What other season evokes childhood memories so sharply?  Spring is a season full of smells.  Some amazing, some...not so amazing.  Smell is the sense that can bring us back to times and places we thought we had forgotten.

I know we may not be entirely out of the woods yet, winter wise, and I'm bracing myself for winter's last hurrah.  I welcome it, though, and am loving the onset of early spring living in a place where I feel I can intimately observe the changing of the seasons.