Winter into Spring

New England is a funny place to live in the spring. I remember when I first moved here. I was in graduate school. Mid- April we had spring vacation. I was thrilled that it was coming. I was ready to put on my shorts, find a nice comfortable chair and soak up the rays while I read a great book. Instead, I was snowed in for several days, shoveling my driveway when I thought I'd be getting a suntan. This year I am once again looking forward to spring vacation. It has been a long winter. I am waiting for that morning when I wake up and to my delight and surprise, it's green! I really enjoy the beauty of a snowy morning but after 4 months of snow, below-freezing temperatures, and no mid-winter trip to the Caribbean, Arizona or even Florida (we're saving our money), I long for the warmth of a glorious spring day!

Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes; and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream:
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring,
In triumph to the world, the youthful spring:
The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array
Welcome the coming of the long’d-for May.
Thomas Carew (1640)