Spring Adventures

I woke up early this morning and remembered it was the first day of spring, so I sprung (sorry) out of bed determined to make something of the morning. My first look out of the window was a mixed blessing...so cold there was frost on the roofs of the next building, thick fog to the east, but clear to the north and....wait for it...it wasn't raining!

Frosted Landscape

So I grabbed my camera and my grocery list and headed out. By the time I hit the main intersection I could see bits of sunshine and a massed fly-over of herons above the heronry. Waiting for the light to change, I glanced in my rearview and saw Elvis. Yes, I started off spring this year with an Elvis sighting. Elvis jet-black hair in his later years comb-over, Elvis sideburns, Elvis sunglasses. He was driving an aged Ford, which was my first clue that he wasn't the real Elvis. My second clue was the woman in the passenger seat...gray-haired and smoking a cigarette. For a moment I entertained the idea of following the car to it's destination just to see what he was wearing, but he turned right and my Starbucks was to the left.

I was also concerned about the herons. (Nature Kills) By the time I had my coffee and was sitting at the heronry, everyone was back at their nests except for the odd father-to-be flying off for another branch. It was only a few minutes later that a large bald eagle flew swiftly across the heronry and out of sight, creating a cacaphony of raucous heron calls and a mass shifting of herons facing the sun, to herons facing the retreating enemy. I decided to leave before he came back, but I am happy to report that last year's predations don't seem to have affected the numbers of nesting herons this year.

2014 Happy Families

Leaving the grocery store, I made a loop through the neighborhood looking for a good 'Stone' photo for my Flickr 365 project, but I kept getting derailed by the early blooming trees - plum, cherry, the odd camelia, that ever-present pale purple species rhody, and my personal favorite - forsythia. I don't think there is any shrub more often improperly pruned than forsythia so to appreciate the real beauty, you almost have to look for one in an untended yard. I never did find a photo-worthy bush, so I had to settle for just a branch, fortuitously planted in front of a color-matched trailer.

Forsythia

 It may not have been the most exciting Spring Adventure, but I didn't waste much gas and I got a few laughs.

March Madness

Whimsy has no place in my Mother’s life.  The fact that it has a very large place in mine is something that she has never come to terms with.  She is, above all things, a practical person.  For example, ask her what she thinks about birthdays…”Well, it’s just another day, really.”

As you can imagine, this has caused some strain in our relationship at times, but more  often just a great gap of understanding – like when I am trying to explain to her what I love about Terry Pratchett, or why I paid good money for a pair of earrings with a clay carrot on one ear and a peapod on the other.

But every spring, when the forsythias are in bloom, I think of something she did about 45 years ago when I was away at college.  And that usually leads me to thinking about something she did on my 16^th birthday.  And that makes me wonder if there was a pocket of impracticality, of whimsy, hidden somewhere deep inside.  Let me explain…

One of the first shrubs to burst into bloom here in the Pacific Northwest is the forsythia.  If there is one blooming, you can’t miss it – glorious yellow.  Not the loveliest shrub in general and very often pruned into a disaster, but glorious yellow branches that promise spring regardless of the temperature at the moment.  Smart folk cut long graceful branches as soon as you can see the bud and with just a day or two sitting in warm water you have brought spring into the house.

Now while the forsythia is coming into bud in Washington, snow still covers the ground in Montana.  So in my freshman year at Missoula, when I received an oddly shaped care package from home, I was amazed to find a carefully wrapped bunch of forsythia branches atop the batch of homemade cookies.  Two days later my dreary little dorm room had a burst of sunshine that brought tears to my eyes every time I walked into the room.  The only other time I was really homesick at school was when I got the measles.

The second memory is of sitting on the couch in the living room opening my 16^th birthday gift from my Mom.  Please note, no party, no family gathering, nothing special much except good wishes.  Mom prefaced the gift with a sort of mumbled statement about being a woman now and this was something every woman should have.  It was a lovely, if inexpensive, set of black lace underwear.  I am still shocked when I think of it.  I am pretty certain my mother herself never owned a matching set of black lace underwear and I can’t imagine her thinking a 16 year old had any need of such a thing.

I have been eternally grateful for those two lapses of practicality, or whimsy, or whatever you want to call it.  I treasure them each spring.  Now that I think of it, my birthday is in March, about when the forsythias bloom.  Perhaps there is something to that Mad as a March Hare business – for my Mother at least.

Sunshine

We have had a week of spring weather...sunshine, clouds, sprinkles, then sunshine again.  Exactly what I wanted.  I knew how much I loved looking up into a tree in full bloom in the sunshine.  I knew how much I loved seeing raindrops on the daffodils.  I forgot that, for me, Spring means sinus headaches.  All that sunshine, clouds, sprinkles, then sunshine again gives me sinus headaches. 

These pictures were taken March 23rd.  This is what Spring is like in the Pacific Northwest.

Deep in the overgrown, blackberry tangled woods,
the sun shines on a wild cherry.

It's worth a sinus headache, any day!

Rant for Spring

I love living in the Pacific Northwest and I can’t imagine living anywhere else…except, of course, anywhere in England.  Everything I need to make me happy is within one hour from Seattle: ocean, mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, museums, concerts, major retailers, festivals, fresh seafood, farmers markets, gorgeous gardens…an endless list really.  And if I get the occasional yearning for plains or wheatland, it’s still only an hour away.  I love lichen and moss and I don’t need to tan.

Way up at the top of the list of things I love about the Pacific Northwest is Spring.  Coming from a childhood in Montana, I knew the joy of endless sunshiny summers and amazing white winters.  I had no idea what Spring could be.

I know that in most parts of the US March is not considered a Spring month, it starts properly in April (between the April Showers) and continues in May (with the May flowers).  In Seattle, we have early camellias and rhodys blooming at the end of February with the early spring bulbs at their feet.  We have forsythia – pure sunshine.  By March the plums have begun to blossom – clouds of pink and white since they bloom before the leaves come out. And from there it is a continuous riot of blossoms through to May.

The apple tree in my Mother's backyard...in bloom...in the sunshine.

And through all this amazing bloom, there is sunshine, soft showers, fluffy white clouds and then more showers.  Sure, there is the occasional week of grey skies, but in between are the weeks when you look out your kitchen window and see the sun reflecting off the raindrops on the six foot tall rhody in full bloom.  And you just smile, a really big, warm, happy smile.

But not this year.  There hasn’t been a combined three hours of sunshine in the last month, and there is nothing on the forecast but more of the same.  I swear, I rarely complain about the weather, but this year – I have had it!  Everything is late because of the bitterly cold February and early March, fine, I can deal with that.  But all the trees are starting to bloom, the bulbs are up and blooming – none of this is any good without sunshine.  What good will it do to have sunshine in April?  It will be too late!