On the calendar, seasons change at specific times. The equinox is, according to Wikipedia, "an astronomical event in which the plane of the earth's equator passes through the centre of the sun." On these days, the hours of daylight and night are approximately the same length. On the solstice, the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky. Each of these marks a season of the year. However, anyone living on earth knows the seasonal dates don't always, if ever, correlate to the actual seasonal change.
Today, Wednesday, March 9, 2016 is the first day of spring. I say this because today I walked out my door and smelled spring. "Spring has a smell?" You ask. YES! Every season has a smell. Winter is a crispness that precedes snow. Summer smells of warmth and flowers. Fall smells like harvest: hay and drying leaves. Spring's smell is a wonderful smell of peat that announces the ground is ready to begin planting. Okay, maybe not planting, but preparation. It's time to begin spring clean up.
After last year's sciatica, the yard, which was just about where I wanted it, is a bit of a disaster. This year means starting over. There are stones to place, weeds to pull. A planter left out over winter cracked. This week I bought my first seeds. Sunday is planting day. I already have tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro growing from vegetables we had in the house. I am counting on our enclosed porch to hold the sun, and protect my summer crop from any final frost.
I can taste the harvest already.
That is spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment