Friday, March 12, 2010

SPRING

Ah, I know spring is just around the corner.  The wind is blowing and the sun is shining and the rain is raining and the daffodils are blooming.  I love daffys.  They are so sassy and carefree.  They challenge the snow and sometimes lose, but mostly they are able to keep their heads bobbing and smiling at me.  I used to love it in Scotland when I would go to the shops and see people walking around wrapped up in their coats and scarves holding a bunch of daffys (always upside down to keep them fresh) as they went from shop to shop.  It was a sure sign that people really believed that spring would come and soon.
 I saw some robins this week which makes me know that spring is close.  I am looking for violets, but haven't seen them yet.  I know they must be out there because Mother's birthday was March 21 and her good friend always gave her violets from her yard for her birthday and it was her favorite flower.  For many years I could never figure out why Dad didn't plant some violets in our yard since she loved them so.  When I was grown up and had a shady part of my yard, I planted violets.  Then I knew.  Pretty as they were and they did stray green all year and threw off a few flowers all through the year, they had one very bad habit.  It didn't bother me but it drove Bill nuts.  They are quite prolific and they spread far and wide and were all over the lawn.  It would have been ok by me, but the lawn mower guy wasn't so happy.  Still, I wouldn't mind having violets in my yard.  It beats heck out of weeds, bermuda grass or nothing at all.  Maybe I will plant some this year.  Yes, maybe I will.
I will be very glad to see spring arrive.   It was a hard winter, interesting but hard.  I don't know when I ever heard the weatherman say 'blizzard warning for the entire state of Oklahoma".  But then we didn't have weathermen when I was small.  I think I remember blizzards then.  Because we would take the sleds and go to the bluffs or white hill and have a wonderful time sledding down the hills and pulling the sleds back up the steep hill and warming up by the bonfire.  I really wonder why we didn't get killed or maimed or at least have broken bones.  It scared the begeezus out of me, but I had to go.  I preferred the head first version, I wanted to see where I was going.  The worst part was running over your fingers when they were so cold.  Ouch, that hurt!  Mostly I remember having a green wool coat that was so heavy but so warm.  Gloves, galloshes, scarf for your neck and a scarf that tied around your head. Two or three pairs of  pants (no bluejeans) a couple of warm sweaters and you were good to go for the afternoon.
Still spring is best.  We always made May baskets and filled them with whatever flowers were blooming in the neighbors yard (with her permission) usually violets or roses and hang them on the neighborhood doors and ring the doorbell and run and hide.  Great fun.  Kids miss that sort of neighborhood family now.  What a shame.
Enjoy the spring.  In spite of tornados and wind storms.  Believe me when I say that it is nice not to have dust storms in the spring now.  They were the worst.