March 2021

Sometimes it seems like spring creeps up on me.  The crocus and daffodils bloom and are joyously welcomed while the world around them is still brown and frosty, the grass slowly begins to don a hint of green, a pale and subtle cloud of pink or bright lemon-green buds appears around some of the trees.  Then one day I look around and realize, all at once, that the sleeping world has wakened, and winter has burst into spring.

Now crystal clear are the falling waters, /And bonnie blue are the sunny skies.

- Robert Burns, The Smiling Spring

My thoughtful spot is cacophonous with the sound of gleeful songbirds.  Today, to my utter delight, it is just barely warm enough to walk barefoot in the creek, and so my walk here was through the shallow, sparking water.  A very small copperhead startled me along the way, sunning himself on a large rock that wasn't quite underwater.  His presence made me reconsider my intentions to clear away the jumble of branches and leaves that was diverting the creek, as it looked like the perfect haven for any of his cousins that might be living nearby, and I didn't particularly like the idea of disturbing them. 

Through the woods, along the creek bank, and surrounding this little moss covered seat, all around me, at my feet and clambering up the the slopes above me and down the rocks to the creek below is a tiny, wondrous world of wildflowers. 

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A violet by a mossy stone, half hidden from the eye
As fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky.

 - William Wordsworth, The Violet

A study of wildflowers could consume a lifetime I think, and a very pleasant lifetime it would be.  No two are alike, their miniature faces droop demurely in the shade or toss joyfully heavenward to bask in the sun.  Some are five simple petals, like the flowers we first drew as children, some intricate orchids with bright yellow throats.  The chickweed blooms (Stellaria media) in starry white clusters beside the pale pink petals of  spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) and the fragile but valiant bluets (Houstonia caerulea).  And the violets!  There are Common Blue violets, (Viola sororia) most denying their name with deep purple shades or pure white blooms; there are the minuscule bearded dwarf violets, so detailed they almost need to be examined with a magnifying glass to be fully appreciated; and yellow violets, their sunny color warning that, unlike their companions, they are inedible. 

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Some days are fair, / And some are raw.
The timid earth / Decides to thaw.

Shy budlets peep / From twigs on trees,
And robins join / The chickadees.

Pale crocuses / Poke through the ground
Like noses come / To sniff around.

          - John Updike, March

Though its beginnings might be so subtle they slip by if we're not paying close attention, there always comes a moment when spring undeniably, irrepressibly, gloriously takes over the quiet contemplation of the winter season and replaces it with an explosion of joyful celebration.  In this little Thoughtful Spot, that moment has just arrived.