“She began to look forward eagerly to the spring, when warm winds would melt the snow and all the blue and yellow flowers would bloom again.”

Heidi, by Johanna Spyri

I feel the same way. I know it is technically spring, but winter and spring are still battling it out here in Michigan. We have warm days then cold ones – and today is a cold gray day. I am ready for warm winds and yellow flowers as well!

Wyatt and I planted some seeds on the first day of spring, which was a beautiful day here, and now we have little seedlings that are getting a little leggy reaching for the sun. They want more sun too! I am going to have to transplant them soon, and put them in Billy’s little makeshift greenhouse area in the basement. Right now they are all vegetables but we are going to start flowers too, maybe in a week or two. April showers bring May flowers, or at least maybe consistently warmer temps in Michigan!

This is the month of the full pink moon, and actually, that might be tonight? I need to check! It’s named the pink moon because of the pink phlox wildflower, which is an early spring bloomer in some parts of the United States. I’ve read it is the Peony Moon in China, so more flower associations.

I love this time of renewal, of that new hope. Of emerging out from a cold and dark winter, into this wonderful sunlit world of color. New life, birds building their nests and singing away, letting us know that the sun is rising. I have read that robins are the first birds to sing in the morning, that they are designed that way, their eyes more sensitive to light so that they can detect it before other birds and they start off the morning chorus, one of my favorite parts of spring. The first buds appearing on trees promise color and flowers and maybe just maybe some apples too. Soon the scent of lilacs will be filling the neighborhoods, blowing in on a breeze, making me stop in my tracks to find out which direction it is coming from.

I love to take my coffee out in the mornings, and sit and soak up a little morning sun and bird song, no matter how cold it is once April rolls around. (I don’t do this if it is raining though obviously) I have this in common with the author of the book I am reading, Gladys Tabor and her book Stillmeadow Daybook, who talks of her love of eating breakfast outdoors, even if she has to wear a sweater. I am the same this time of year. I also love to do this in the summer, sit outside alone in the dark late in the evening, for a completely different feeling and listening to a completely different orchestra.

I’m looking forward to lighter meals, more fresh vegetables and fruit, hopefully even some from our own garden again. It’s been a while since we had a garden and I am excited to start one. It was always too hard before, but now that Wyatt has his deck and ramp, it is possible again. We will be out there soon enough, getting the area ready. I am trying not to go crazy in deciding what to plant, but I will probably go overboard because that is how I roll. Tomatoes and radish and basil and dill and beets and lettuces, sugar snap peas and raspberries and cucumbers and watermelon and pumpkins, a garden that takes us all the way to fall. I want to plant milkweed for the monarchs again, since our patch was dug up when we added the deck, and also plants for other butterflies and moths native to Michigan. Maybe this year I can even convince a toad to settle in our yard.

The other day was a windy day, and I had the windows open wide, airing out the house from winter and letting spring in. The kittens were racing about, zooming all over, hopping from window to window, and I realized, this is their first spring! The smells they must have been catching on the wind could have been brand new to them, exciting, curious. The new sounds. What will they think as spring continues, with more open window days, when flowers begin to bloom, and birds are more plentiful around us? How exciting for us too, to experience this with them.

And I had better get a move on, quit my daydreaming for the moment, and think about what to make for dinner. As ready as I am for light salads, today is still a mucky swamp day, that calls for something warm in our bellies. Pretty soon though. It’s coming. As Frog and Toad say, it is just around the corner!