Spring Is Coming

This picture is not this spring after so mild a winter, possibly the mildest on record. This, a picture from March 31, 2011, and that winter that lingered, it seemed until June.

Spring is coming.

I see it saved from winter in the hollows of green.

I see it in the swelling buds.

I see it under leaves in corner blown there by whirling spring winds.

I hear torrential rains and think of a greening to come this week when temperatures will be in the mid-70s, possibly a record.

Already some talk of drought.

Yesterday, I walked the family garden with my nearly 3-year-old nephews, "Raspberries, sleeping...blackberries, sleeping...strawberries,... STILL SLEEPING..."

We find old okra pods, dried, whole, and filled with seed. Enchanted, they crack them open and scatter seed everywhere. Okra will be as weeds!

A lone spaghetti squash dried, cracked on one side, but nearly whole. Something has eaten all the seed, but left the spaghetti-like guts. I crack open the gourd-like shell. The dried innards come out looking more like a luffa sponge. The nephews are fascinated by the texture. "No seeds! Where did they go?!" They are enraptured with it. They point out rabbit ca-ca. Suddenly they are as a mob. "Rabbits! The rabbits took them! Those rabbits!!!"

I have visions of these tiny Elmer Fudds on patrol with sticks, pounding the ground, "huntin' wabbits".

I smile, glad my son and I wrapped the blueberries. I hope for a few drying days and a chance to see if my son's nearly-learned expertise with two-cycle engines will allow me a better outings with the tiller.

And, my basil has came up in the seed trays as thick as hair on Faithful Companion.

Yes, Spring is a comin' in.