Words for Wednesday: maybe Spring’s sprung?

It appears that Spring is finally beginning to spring in my neck of the woods. I’m not going to hold my breath though because winter just doesn’t want to depart yet.

Yesterday we had a bit of snow on the ground and flurries so a few stray winter-like days may continue to descend on us this month.

However, when I gazed out one of Mama’s Empty Nest’s windows before the cold snap set in, I noticed our 2+ acre yard is gradually changing from a dead brown expanse into a verdant green one.

Maple trees that grace our little plot of heaven here in the country are busting out their little red buds.

Our forsythia bush (which I called “for Cynthia” as a child) suddenly burst forth in those tiny yellow flowers that make me happy.

The crowd of birds that frequented our bird feeder all winter now seem to hold frenzied feeding conventions with many at a time attacking the feeder and each other to scarf down as much bird seed as they can.

It’s almost like they know we’ll soon take the feeder down because once spring arrives and morphs into summer, we don’t want to attract bears into our yard since they love snacking on bird feeder seeds.

The squiggly, wiggling fishing worms that have been burrowed in the soil are making their way out and sprawling across our sidewalk warming themselves and they will provide plenty of breakfast, lunch, and dinner options for our birdie friends now.

And just last week, we had a doozy of a thunderstorm with booming thunder so loud it vibrated our house and lightning strikes providing quite the electrical show.

Thunderstorms usually don’t happen during the winter season which caused me to remember a childhood occurrence.

When I was in elementary school, winter seemed to take forever to vacate the premises. We usually had tons of snow and cold weather and because of that, no outdoor recesses during school hours.

So we were relegated to indoor recess where we played simple games like jacks and pick-up sticks. If you’re a young’un, google them to see what they were.

I vividly remember one day in March while we were still stuck inside our classroom having recess, it started to rain instead of snow. But not only did the rain pour down outside our fourth-grade classroom windows, we heard the boom of thunder, rolls of it one after another.

Our teacher, an older and wise lady, announced to the class that with thunder came spring. And I remember we all cheered! Spring was on its way!

No more wintry weather and indoor recesses. We would be able to play outside on the playground! We could jump rope, play hopscotch, kick ball, and all the other outdoor activities we enjoyed.

How happy that sound of thunder made us.

The other day when I heard thunder booming, I remembered that childhood day 60 years ago.  And it made me smile at the memory of spring’s “arrival” announced in Mrs. Nathaniel’s fourth grade class.

Recalling that also brought a little ditty to my mind which we used to recite as children when Spring began showing off its splendor:

“Spring is sprung, the grass is riz. I wonder where the posies is.”  

I don’t have to wonder today because sure enough, Spring is trying to spring. The grass has risen. And my posies? They’re blooming with more to come if the snowy cold doesn’t zap them first.

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” ~ John Muir

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