Spring is technically still a ways off, but we have daffodils, forsythia peeking out, warmer days (followed by COLD ones), and last night I heard the first peepers of the season. So I’m indulging my spring fever with seven things I love about this time of year.
1) Snow on daffodils. In spite of warmer days, we’ll occasionally wake to a fluffy dusting of snow that clings to branches and flower petals without making a mess of the roads. Pretty then gone. Just the way I like my snow! Growing up, snows like that were called “poor man’s fertilize” and farmers would hurry to plow it under in the garden before it melted.
2) Peepers. I love to wake to the song of the little frogs singing and then walk with them at dusk. It’s the music of spring!
3) Fresh asparagus. I think it’s kind of a shame that you can get just about any produce any time of year these days. I remember how Mom treasured those first asparagus shoots poking up through the warming soil. Thank goodness for farmer’s markets where you can still find the real thing! Of course, my great-grandmother wouldn’t have had such fancy fixins–she would probably have enjoyed poke sallat or dandelion greens.
4) Fiddleheads. There’s just something about those tightly furled fronds that’s gorgeous to me. When hiking with my husband year round, I love to point out flowers and plants. He calls them ALL “fiddleheads.”
5) Lambs. When I was a kid, spring was all about the new calves. Dad and would walk out to check on the mothers about to give birth. Now I get to drive past a local farm college’s lambing pasture every morning and evening. And yes, I will pull over to watch lambs frolic. I mean, how can you not?!?
6) Seed catalogs. I don’t grow many vegetables anymore (even when I try, I don’t grow many!), but I still love flipping through the pages of those colorful catalogs. Giant tomatoes, golden corn, plump strawberries, crookneck squash, new potatoes, baby lettuces . . . Oh, shoot. Maybe I will plant something this year!
7) Open windows. It’s a bit early yet, but any time the temperature creeps upwards of 65 I sneak a window open at least for a little while. The day I can leave them open all night listening to the peepers will be perfection!
What do you love about spring?
Sarah, this morning I pulled on a pair of shorts … I felt so lighter. For some reason, I’m in a cleaning house mood. 🙂 But what I love the very most is opening our windows, opening up the house. I have a short window of opportunity for that … it’ll be so hot in just days, I’m sure. <3
Good for you with the spring cleaning! I get some of that, but I usually succeed in tamping it down 😉
Ha ha! Well, my “some of that” got pushed out the door. 🙂 Math and grammar shoved their way to the front. 🙂
Spring air is so melodious with happy robins trilling in the budding trees and that crisp budding green popping up from the ground. I never tire of it.
Oh yes, birdsong! I left that out.