Spring’s been a slow poke in our neck of the woods. Ol’ Man Winter hung on and on and on and must have set up a huge roadblock that spring had to jump over on its journey here.
We encountered a couple of days that proved spring-like in April but it seems our grass has taken longer to ‘green up’ and the trees are still leafless for the most part. It’s already May and Spring is late. I know this because as I peruse photos I’ve taken in springs past, we are nowhere near those colorful displays I captured then.
But spring’s working its way here and spring will come. We long for it, we hope for it. Alexander Pope wrote in his An Essay on Man: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast..” Well, I think we can turn that line around and say “spring hopes eternal.”
Yes, spring is the season of hope after a long, cold, and dark winter. Spring awakens and emerges after the dormancy of winter and when it does, it revitalizes my senses. This week’s photo challenge is “spring.” What says spring to me?
I see flowers bursting forth in brilliant color after the drab, colorless expanse of winter and trees wearing frocks of fragrant blossoms. That says spring.
I lift my eyes upward and appreciate blue skies with wispy, cottony clouds. That says spring. But even sudden thunderstorms that rush in with darkening clouds, say spring to me. I hear the rolling thunder and spot a streak of lightning here and there and I think, “It’s spring booming forth.”
The spring peepers in the marshy area behind our home start singing their spring song delighting my ears. And then there’s the morning awakening music provided by the birds who have flown back from the south. Their repertoire of trills and whistles are preludes of welcome. They all say spring to me.
And ah, sunshine – it makes me feel spring. Abundant rays of sunshine warm my upturned face as I bask in the sun’s glow. It just seems like that sunshine soaks into my very being and produces a bounce in my step and joy in my heart.
The smell of earth dug up and overturned also announces spring’s arrival when the plot of earth out back is plowed up and my husband starts planting seeds for his garden. It’s here when the lawn tractor sheds its winter snow plow in favor of the mower deck and I can smell the delightful aroma of freshly-cut grass permeating the air.
And for this country girl, spring even showed itself on a recent trip to New York City on a beautiful, warm day, as evidenced in my photo above. So many sights and sounds and smells say spring, whether you greet the season in the country or the city, and make me think that Spring must be the most welcomed season of all.
“The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.” ~Bern Williams
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