Spring & April Showers

Spring has arrived on the Fundy coast, at least by the calendar. After days and days of heavy rains, including a night-time thunder shower, yesterday was like summer. The temperature went up to 20c, the sun shone, and a balmy breeze wafted through open windows. I was able to dry T-shirts on the clothesline, love that fresh outdoorsy scent. An interlude, as today it's back to 6c, gray overcast and drizzling rain, but it was a wonderful day.

At night now the spring peepers are loud, and mornings are alive with birdsong. Woodpeckers are pecking away at the old trees that surround the property, and the white-throated sparrow calls its three notes from the field. Purple finches, goldfinches, nuthatches and chickadees gather at the feeder, along with crows and mourning doves gobbling up what gets tossed on the ground. In the afternoons you hear the soft whoo-whoo call from the mourning doves, so haunting that Appalachian people said the spirits of deceased loved ones were calling.

On one of our sunnier days, I walked down an old woods road nearby, and was cheered greatly by the sight of yellow wildflowers clustered here and there by the ditches. Not sure what they are, they look a bit like marguerites. Also saw a mourning cloak butterfly wandering around the woods, a pretty thing.

One day last week, I saw two bald eagles soaring over the yard, an adult pair most likely. I also had a visit from a small deer herd, looked out the window in late afternoon to see six white-tailed deer grazing on the grass and under the apple trees. They took their time, eventually crossing the road off into the woods. They are lovely, but will be less welcome once the garden is underway.

A few perennials are coming up in my raised beds, bee balm, sedum, milkweed, Maltese Cross and chives. Tarragon seems to be spreading madly in the vegetable garden, may have to be cut back. It makes a tasty vinegar, as do the chive blossoms. The earth is still soggy or I could plant peas right away, may chance it soon. A few breezy dry days will help, doesn't take long for soil to dry if it just stops raining long enough.

The best book I've read this month has been a poetry collection, "The Unhinging of Wings" by Margo Button. Since she was from St. Andrews, NB originally, I was interested in the regional connection, though she's lived in B.C. for years. The poems are personal, a heartbreaking record of her son's journey into schizophrenia. He finally died by suicide, and the poems follow his illness and the aftermath. Beautifully written and painfully raw, the book will touch anyone who has lost a loved one or is dealing with mental illness.

These Poems
(from the introductory poem)

read the unwrinkled palms
of your silence while you
shift, fade, vanish. .....
These poems, imprecise asides, I hide from you....
I offer them instead of engravings on granite,
forgotten in a graveyard.
-
by Margo Button

Here's wishing all happy planting and time to be thankful for the world around us and our loved ones.
"Oh, world, I cannot hold thee close enough" (credit to Edna St. Vincent Millay) and doesn't that nicely sum up the feeling of a spring morning.

Spring is Here, Sort of

Okay, in theory it's supposed to be spring, but for every day of sunshine we seem to be getting two or three of rain or even (still...wet snow!) Ugh. A blue sky makes so much difference when it's time to get up in the morning. In a gesture of optimism, I bought seed packets of zinnias, Sugar Snap peas, and mesclun lettuce mix when I found them on sale at half price the other day. I want to work in the garden, but the soil is still soggy and cold, no use to rush it. Well, gardening is all about learning to be patient.

The birds have begun to arrive in flocks, with lots of robins in the yard on wet days like this one. Yesterday a noisy bunch of grackles spent the day squabbling and jumping up and down on the feeder, emptying out the black oil sunflower seeds in a few hours. Song sparrows have arrived - the nuthatch kept chasing one away from a branch it apparently had claimed as its own, close to the feeder. Both a downy and a pileated woodpecker were hammering away at the old poplar tree in the morning. With the rustlings of sparrows in dry leaves, squirrels chittering and grackles calling their rusty nail squeaks, the yard was alive with the sounds of spring. In the afternoon, a young bald eagle circled the yard for a while, and I spotted two adults flying much higher, keeping watch on junior is my guess.

A few days ago I walked by the kitchen window, glanced out, and saw two yearling deer frozen in position, staring back in at me from about ten feet away. When I kept still, they decided to ignore me and coolly returned to grazing the old yellow grass (too long because it didn't get a late fall mowing). After a while, they sauntered away up the path to the woods. They were quite lovely.

Just finished reading a memoir by Doris Grumbach, an author living in Maine. Dealt in an interesting way with the changes in life that come along as we grow older, not all sunshine and roses. Now hoping to find some of the other non-fiction works she has written. Discovered from her book that one of my favourites, The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, is somewhat notorious for being the work of a former Klansman and speechwriter for racist governor George Wallace. Very strange, as the book portrays a native American viewpoint with humour and empathy. A good read (and film too) just the same.

Here's hoping that April showers really will bring May flowers. I for one am more than ready for them, and for warm days and sunshine.