TheBanyanTree: Subtle Signs of Spring

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Spring isn’t being very subtle right now.  It’s hammering us on the head,
“Hey, I’m giving you guys a preview of what’s to come.”  Our winds have been
from the south, and they’ve been such gentle caressing winds.  The sun glows
in the hazy air.  Our little bit of snow is melting.  If I breathe deeply
enough, I can just make out that moist earth dirty smell that comes when the
frost is breaking up in the ground.

The birds are usually silent during December and January, but just last week
as I was filling the bird feeders, I heard a lonely call of the cardinal,
and then of a junco, and then a couple of blue jays chimed in.  The calls
were faint and were individual, but in a few weeks, the birds will be
gathering their songs and calls together to make a noisy chorus that will
run into the latter part of the summer.

My black cat was confined to the house during the freezing days of January,
but now he haunts the back door, waiting for that open crack to escape
outside and explore his outdoor world again.

Ray and I were able to go grocery shopping in our sweatshirt jackets last
night instead being bundled up like Eskimos in the far northern part of
Alaska.  I hate grocery shopping with a passion and consider it a necessary
evil of life, but it seemed so much easier to do when I wasn’t weighed down
with a heavy winter coat, wool hat, scarf, and mittens.

I was getting ready to open the front door this morning and go out and get
the newspapers when I saw a couple of deer approaching our house.  It was
almost like they magically appeared out of the pre-sunrise darkness just to
say hello.  They only moved a few feet away from me when I came outside.  I
began to talk to them like I do my dogs, who were barking frantically in the
house because they think the deer are big dogs like them, and the deer
actually started to move closer to me.  They stopped and I kept my ground
and we continued to look at each other and I continued to chat with them.
Somehow the magic moment ended and I went back into the house and they went
to check out my empty bird feeders in the backyard.

And today is the St Paul Winter Carnival’s Frozen 5K, which won’t be very
frozen.  Susan and I will walk in comfort, and that means no frozen toes or
fingers, along the river later this morning.  They had to shorten last year’
s half marathon into a quarter marathon, because the temperature was below
zero at our starting time.  What a difference a year makes!

We’ve had a very wimpy winter in Minnesota, so it’s amazing how giddy these
past early spring-like warm days have made us.  I guess this preview of
spring gives us hope that the hot and sultry days of summer are not too far
off.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
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http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

We loved with a love that was more than love.
--Edgar Allan Poe