It’s here! It’s official!  It’s Spring!

What’s that?  You want me to double-check my facts?  You say it feels nothing like Spring?  Your what is frozen to your what?  I know.  I feel the same.  Spring hasn’t exactly rolled out the welcome mat.   Well, maybe she has, but Winter’s busy wiping its icy feet on it.  Last year at this time, we were dividing plants and cheerfully watching the grass begin to grow.  Winter seemed to start late this year, so perhaps, he’s just playing out his season on a somewhat delayed schedule.  Don’t despair.  Eventually, it will start to feel like Spring, look like Spring and smell like Spring.  Try as Winter may, the vernal equinox will simply not allow Winter to hang on forever.  This, I promise.

Did you know that the length of daylight and length of night are not equal on the spring equinox?  The true day of “day/night” equality always falls a little before the spring equinox.  Exactly when it happens depends on where you are located.  The first day of Spring is still nonetheless special in the sense that only two times per year (fall and spring equinoxes) does the sun rise due east and set due west.

I know it doesn’t sound all that glamorous or even terribly interesting, but Spring is a very special time of year, not only for us humans, who can finally shed the coats, mittens and hats, but for all the flora and fauna in our yards and gardens.  They’ve been waiting just as long as we have to feel the gentle warmth of the sun and begin life anew.

“And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.”

—Percy Bysshe Shelley

Best wishes,

Kim Sweeney