Spring sky, winter earth

Glorious sun beams brightened the morning, radiating the bluest of skies, and causing the earth to simply shine.  Looking upwards, you would swear it was spring with the sky so azure and pure white fluffy clouds floating above.

But a view of the landscape revealed something entirely different. Winter was having its last hurrah.  

March snows are like that here in my homestead land. Several inches of crystalline snowflakes can fall quickly and blanket the earth in a hurry.  March snows are usually heavy and wet making them cling to trees and bushes like it was their last hope, which I guess it is.

If you stepped outside my door to gaze at the scenery, you might imagine that you had just traveled through the wardrobe into the land of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia.

It’s beautiful. Winter haters bemoan it. “Why can’t it be spring? It’s March, for heaven’s sake! I’m so sick of snow,” they whine. 

But I’m not a winter hater. I love the pristine look of freshly fallen snow, even in March. I enjoy donning my winter coat and boots one more time to step outside, view the beauty of it all, and attempt to capture some of that exquisiteness with my camera.

And on a day like last Friday, it was pure bliss.  It snowed during the night, so I awakened to a pristine snow-covered world. One look outside my window, and I knew I had to venture outside before it disappeared.

The sun shone warmly on my face while a frosty breeze cooled it immediately and blew my hair all around on my hatless head.  I zipped up my jacket, pulled on my gloves, and raised the camera to my eye.

A last taste of winter with a touch of spring greeted me. Blue skies above pierced by sunbeams demonstrated the promise of spring while the earth was covered with a few inches of frosty flakes of snow telling me winter wasn’t quite ready to let go yet.  

I enjoyed the quietness of fresh snow punctuated only by the sound of birds singing in the trees. A blend of seasons. I found it lovely.

I tried to capture it as best I could because soon it will all be gone.  The warmth of heralding spring will melt it just as the last few days of warmer temperatures kept the snow from adhering to the concrete roadways and my front sidewalk.

Spring will have its way and push winter off the calendar to wait until the end of the year to return.  Crystal blue skies will prevail occasionally disrupted by rain clouds when spring storms appear. 

The newly sprouted crocuses, now dusted with snow, will fade and daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths will replace them. The forsythia bush will burst forth in brilliant yellow song-like blooms, the lilac will explode in lavender aroma, and our trees will flaunt their budding branches. Sunny faced dandelions will pop their heads up amidst the greening blades of grass.

A vivid, vibrant change will occur as surely as I produce the words to write this blog post, but not until this new snow storm threat passes this week. And I will be ready to welcome a new season because experiencing all four seasons is what I love about this place where I live – this empty nest in my corner of the world.

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” ~ Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) – first female writer published in American colonies

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