Spring Has Sprung

The first day of spring is today, March 20th. In the same way that some people can't wait for fall and its colorful foliage, I eagerly anticipate the coming of spring. I also look forward to summer and don't mind the heat as long as there is air conditioning available. I hate cold weather. It's nice to be able to walk outside barefoot to bring in the morning newspaper or afternoon mail. I don't like having to figure out whether I'll need a heavy coat, medium-weight jacket or just a sweater when I go out. A short-sleeved top (I can't stand sleeveless clothes) is my preference.

Spring flowers have it all over fall leaves for beauty. Early-blooming trees and bulbs give way to dogwoods and azaleas. Then it's time for roses and planting annuals. Leaves come out and green grass grows--with a little help from my yard guys. Everything looks fresh and new and I'm invigorated by it. Even though we have to endure the pollen season before we can really move outdoors, the change in temperature makes it bearable. I've already written about how I dislike eating outdoors, but walking and sitting outside listening to the songs of birds is great.

Down by the ponds near my house those darn, messy Canada geese will hatch another batch of eggs. They should NOT be protected. Does anyone know if they are good to eat? (Goose is a delicacy in many parts of the world.) Or could they be slaughtered and ground up for animal feed? Maybe they could be shipped to someplace that needs their poop for fertilizer. WE certainly don't.

Robins and cardinals are all over the place, especially in the trees in my back yard. I think they feast on the holly berries there. I'm not the bird lover that daughter Cathy is, but I find them interesting. Wrens usually find some place around my house to make a nest. For several years at least one has made a nest in my garage and laid eggs before I found it. Then I had to leave the garage door open all the time to let it sit on the eggs and come and go to feed the brood (usually 3 or 4) that hatched. Sometimes birds fly into the picture window over my great room. They knock themselves ga-ga then usually are able to recover and fly away. The only one I know has died was a cedar waxwing (I saved it in the freezer and identified it from a bird book due to its unusual coloring). Birds have plenty of insects to eat around here--especially mosquitos in the summer. I appreciate that.

I miss having the GGO (or whatever that golf tournament is called now) in the spring at Sedgefield. The weather was always "iffy" the end of March, but on sunny days the course was gorgeous. You could almost watch the dogwoods come out during tournament week. We Jaycettes wore our best new spring outfits to the Golfers' Wives Tea--THE social occasion of the week for us gals, because we were usually busy behind the scenes doing the menial work our Jaycee husbands found beneath them. It was a great week to start wearing our new spring clothes, and we were still young and skinny enough to look good in them. I'll be writing more about the Jaycees in another post.

For now, I'll just quote the lyrics of an old song, "Welcome, sweet springtime...."