Is it spring yet?
The meteorologists and the astronomers both agree that spring starts in March, though they have different dates and different reasons. So when we ask if spring has, come, the answer us no, not quite.
And yet…
The goldfinches are getting their yellow coloration back. The bulbs that we planted last fall are starting to send up shoots.
The sun is getting up earlier, and going down later… a process that has continued a few minutes each day since late December, but is truly noticeable (and inspiring!) by now.
The sap is active in the maple trees again, and those who tap are hard at work. It runs best when the day’s above freezing, and the night’s below, and that’s where we are right now (most days, and most nights).
Some of those who collect still use buckets, but tube systems are widely used here in the 21st century, making life easier for the farmer, and sap cleaner for the boiler.
Cartwright’s Maple Tree Inn, between Birdsall and Short Tract, is serving now, and hopes to continue through April 10 (except Mondays and Easter). For generations of western New Yorkers a visit to Cartwright’s, standing in a chilly line to get pancakes and “estate” syrup, is a sure sign of spring. (And while Cartwright’s may be the most venerable of our producers, it’s far from the only one.)
Ice is melting in the ponds and streams and gullies. Once the wetlands are clear, the red-wing blackbirds will return, rattling out their skeeeeeeeeee call from the cattails.
Snow is receding, shrinking back from its own edges. The piles at the supermarket, and next to our driveways, are sinking lower and lower. One day they’ll be gone altogether, and we won’t even notice. One day we’ll put on our gloves or our mittens or our earmuffs, and it will be the last time this season, and we won’t know it, or even notice it.
The bears will start getting up, and those with cubs will be argumentative, and all of them will be famished. Most people will spend a lifetime hiking in the woods and never see a bear, but we still need to be alert and cautious. Here in western New York, when the bears awake we need to take the birdfeeders in – fill them from Thanksgiving to Easter is a good rule of thumb.
Hepatica, Mayapple, trillium, and arbutus will peek out at last, and so will skunk cabbage. It’s not very attractive, but it should ignite a spark of joy. When the skunk cabbage appear, spring is at hand at last!
Easter fashions are not what they used to be, but Easter candy will soon overflow the shelves in the stores. Churches will ring their bells and celebrate Christianity’s great day.
A few students will stare out the windows of their classrooms, then surreptitiously make a set of marks to count the days until summer vacation, and then cross them off one by one. This will require a hard decision. Cross the day off when you arrive in the morning, or wait until you leave in the afternoon?
One day the forsythia will burst with yellow. One day we’ll see the first robin, and another day the first monarch. It will be spring. At last.