Early Spring?

This morning, on a bare patch of the yard outside Scooter's window, I noticed something we watch for every year: the first of our daffodils poking its head above the ground. This particular spot gets a lot of sun and warmth, and is always the first to thaw in the spring. Even so, this was earlier than I had expected. With snow forecast for tonight, the poor things will most likely freeze and have to try again in a few weeks.

Here in Minnesota, every little sign of spring is awaited with eager anticipation. We spotted a pair of cardinals cavorting in the yard last week. My parents have been busily collecting maple sap for two weeks now, and boiling it into maple syrup. It it shaping up to be a bumper year for maple syrup, with a long string of ideal days for sap production: nights below freezing, and warm sunny days above freezing.

Soon, the snow will all be melted (tonight's forecast snowfall notwithstanding), and we will turn our attention to the early bloomers. Crocus first, then daffodils--we usually have fresh daffodils on our table for a good month--then peonies and finally roses when summer begins.

During that time, we will also mark the greening of the lawn, the first thunderstorm of the season, and the day we open the windows for the first time since October.

I often wonder about people who live in extremely temperate climes, like Los Angeles, or Miami. Here in Minnesota, we have a distinct parade of seasons, a way to mark the passage of time from year to year, a very particular rhythm to life. What do people do without being able to look forward to the first snowfall, or the melting of the last patch of slush? To what rhythm does life dance, without the annual parade of crocus, daffodil, peony, and rose?

Many prefer the predictable climate of the always-warm. For myself, I prefer to delight in discovering the first daffodil shoots in the spring, and watch the sky expectantly for snowflakes in the fall. At such moments, we are all children, as the world becomes brand-new again with the passing of each season.