Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. -Rainer Maria Rilke
Spring energy is a busy energy and I welcome the change. I get frustrated during winter and if the temperature is below 50 I usually build a fire and stay inside. For the first time in 3 years we had a March freeze. Shortly after we headed to Orange Beach, AL to enjoy the shore. A frigid wind blew the sugary sand into our stay. A cold beach is a lonely one with more than usual to be observed. I fished for sheep head on Fort Morgan Pier, took the kids to the zoo and ate seafood on our balcony overlooking the ocean.
While away, my land and animals bloomed. During spring our chickens lay more eggs, the turkeys hide their nests in the bushes and hatch chicks. Once hatched, the hens appear proudly with their broods stumbling behind them. The fresh rafter of jakes and jennies chirping wildly, happily following their trumpeting mother.
One turkey hen decided to nest too close to the forest. A pile of beautiful feathers and so many runny and broken eggs were all that remained. King George, the head tom, called for her for 3 days before turning back and tending to the remaining flock.
The lack of rain in November provided a weak wild flower season. It’s May 1st and the bluebonnets and butter cups have started to wilt and seed. It’s time for the dandelions, fire wheels and blue poppies to have a go. I leave three of my fields alone until after May. This allows the rabbits to build trails and burrows away from the routine of hawks and owls, the butterflies to land on the spikey, purple Coyote Thistle, the lightening bugs to hatch in the humid blue grass and so much more. I keep our main lawn mowed so my kids can play and walk with ease to gather eggs in the afternoon.
I charged the batteries and added air to the tires of the mowers and tractor, sharpened the blades with an angle grinder and changed the oil. I repaired the broken boards on the porch, cut out the mistletoe from the live oaks, replaced the light fixtures on the outside of the garage, installed a new ceiling fan on the porch. I hired two high school kids to redo the flower beds and plant more roses. I simply can’t do it all, but I certainly try.
The field I shred gets cut in late April. It’s the field you can see from the road. I look forward to the sound of the diesel engine of the tractor sputtering alive after resting all winter. The choking black smoke and the mud dobber nests being knocked off the radiator by the fan.
Each year, for the last 5 years, a pair of barn swallows improve a nest made from mud in the corner of our porch. The kids call them Ethan and Eve. Each year they have 2-3 babies and I wait until they hatch before I mow. When I start shredding the tall grass a myriad of bugs are awakened. Crane flies, small khaki moths and various others leap into the air while the barn swallows loop in a well timed symphony. Ethan and Eve swirl around my tractor catching bugs and bring them back to their young. They will remain at this task long after I’ve finished until the bugs resettle.
Each April I lose 10 pounds and most of my free time. I start playing tennis once a week again and the constant work of repair has no end. The fields will need attention until they stop growing in late August. The rain will disappear and the sun will strengthen. Until then, I will ride the moody weather of spring. The long pockets of thick, slow rain that turn the distance navy blue. The gusty bright mornings that blow loose the things leaned against the shed. The cool afternoons that spill lemonade sun rays into the sweet tea shadows.
Yes, spring brings a busy energy and I welcome it.
Here’s a wonderful poem by E.E. Cummings about spring.
Spring is like a perhaps hand by E.E. Cummings, 1962
III
Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and
changing everything carefully
spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and
without breaking anything.