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In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
~Margaret Atwood
There’s
nothing quite like the fragrance of the earth on a warm Spring day
when plants begin to blossom. It is the time of year when many trees
and shrubs look as if they are most certainly dead but then suddenly
they spring to life. It is the miracle of Spring.
We begin
watching for signs of Spring even as early as February 2nd
when we look to see if the groundhog sees his shadow, and we hope he
doesn’t because the legend says that if he does, he will be
frightened back into his den and we will experience yet another six
weeks of winter. I thought maybe any old groundhog would do for the
shadow test but according to the inner circle in Punxsutawney, PA. any
ground hog other than Phil are simply weather predicting imposters.
The word
“Spring” itself is from Old English meaning “the place of rising or
issuing as in a wellspring, the source of a stream or spring.”
Spring doesn’t
happen at quite the same time every year. According to Vernal-- you
know-- Vernal Equinox? He visits every year on March 20, or 21st,
but the time and date vary slightly.
Seriously, the
Vernal Equinox is the time that the sun crosses directly over the
earth’s equator. (The word equinox translated literally means “equal
night”) When this happens, night and day are approximately the same
length all over the earth. This is how the official first day of
spring is determined.
The reason for
some confusion over whether it is the 20th or 21st
of March is because it can happen on either day and it also depends on
where you happen to live upon planet earth. The calculations are not
exact either and differ quite a few minutes according to the U.S.
Naval Observatory. It goes by the Gregorian calendar and also takes
leap year into account. The time is computed in Universal Time, which
gives the time for the Vernal Equinox this year as March 21, 2007, at
12:07 A.M. To calculate the time for where we live here in the
Central Time Zone, five hours should be subtracted from Universal
Time. That means that Spring happened here in Missouri on March 20,
2007, at approximately 7:07 P.M.
Although Spring
is officially here, we have yet to see very many days of mild weather
that we can really get out and do something in our gardens and yards.
As Henry Van Dyke said, “The first day of spring is one thing, and the
first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes
as great as a month.”
The word,
“Spring”, even has a cheery ring to it that makes us feel more
energetic and we long to get outside and plant something, anything,
even if it is just a flower in a pot, so we don our jackets and search
for signs of spring. It doesn’t take long to see the buds on the
trees, the Johnny-jump-ups, daffodils, and other tips of green plants
pushing through the soil.
Everyone tends
to anticipate the warmth of Spring weather and begin to think about
planting season. Folks can be heard talking about Spring and some try
to out do each other with how early they expect to plant potatoes or
radishes in their gardens.
One
overachiever that I know, plants tomatoes in March and puts an old
tire over each plant. He puts water inside the curve of the tire and
then covers it with plastic. As the tomato grows, he just adds
another tire to adjust for the height. When the weather permits, he
removes the tires and has a tomato plant nearing maturity. He is
always sure to have the first ripe tomato to brag about to his
friends.
We all tend to
get anxious for Spring to arrive, especially if it has been a hard
winter. After being snowed in for a few days, cabin fever sets in and
we long for Spring. We even begin to think about mowing the yard,
having forgotten all about how tired we were last year from mowing
every week.
In Frances
Hodgson Burnett’s book, The Secret Garden, young Mary Lennox’s
guardian, Mr. Craven, asks her if there is anything that she wants
such as toys, books, or dolls. Mary’s reply takes him by surprise
when she simply asks him, “Might I have a bit of earth?” When Mr.
Craven asks the reason for her unusual request she says, “To plant
seeds in--to make things grow--to see them come alive,"
Perhaps that is
why we yearn for Spring. It could be that we all long for a
peaceful, verdant garden. After all, life began in a garden. It
could be that we, like Mary Lennox, want a bit of earth “to plant
seeds in—to make things grow—to see them come alive”, and to observe
the miracle of Spring.
The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
~Robert Browning
By
Pamela Perry Blaine
©March 2007
Bio:
Pamela lives in Missouri with her husband, Michael. She enjoys
writing, music, and country living. She writes "Pam's Corner" for her
local newspaper and many stories have been published on the internet
as well as in several books
such as The
Miracle Of Sons, 2The Heart/People Who Make A Difference, and
A Tribute To Moms. Her goal is to write to encourage others
and also to write stories for her children and grandchildren so that
stories and family history will be preserved.
Pam and Mike have made a CD of several songs she has written called,
"I'll Walk You Home". It is available by freewill donation.
More information as well as a clip from the CD is on the website at:
http://www.blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm
e-mail:
pamyblaine@blaines.us
)
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( ?.·? (?.·? ?.·?
`·-»Pamy
"Security is not the absence of danger,
but the presence of God"
My Website:
http://www.blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm
e-mail:
pamyblaine@blaines.us
"NO ONE IS USELESS IN THIS WORLD
WHO LIGHTENS THE BURDEN OF ANYONE ELSE"
http://www.greatcom.org/laws/englishkgp/default.htm
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