Nobody can begrudge us Minnesotans (or anyone else in the Upper Midwest or New England) some complaining about the weather. It has been one heck of a winter–much colder than average with much higher than average snowfall. We had 96 days of snow on the ground before it started melting. The drifts were thigh-high, making any trekking off the shoveled path fairly impossible without snowshoes. The ground froze so deeply that we were encouraged to let the water flow at a pencil-width stream at night to keep the service lines from freezing–and we’re still doing that.
Spring arrived twelve days ago. We are impatient for the Spring in our minds–the green grass, flowers blooming, leaf budding, birds singing, warm enough for no hats and mittens kind of Spring. But we had five inches of snow last week. We dodged the big snowfall last night that pounded the prairie north and west of here. It is cold and windy today. There’s snow in the forecast for Friday. Is this Mother Nature’s ultimate April Fool’s joke?
Spring, like so many things in our lives, is a process. We have to get to where we want to be–we can’t just arrive. Early Spring is dirty and messy. A winter’s worth of sand and salt and blowing debris is exposed as the snow melts. But the snow is melting! And the snow that does fall is so warm and full of moisture that it fairly splats on the sidewalk, and the sun is strong enough to start melting it even when below freezing. The days are long with light compared to January, so chores can be done outside in the evening before nightfall. We can see grass now. A few geese are winging their way north. I saw three huddled robins the other day. It really is Spring! Beautiful, messy, chilly, snowy Spring! No fooling!
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