April made her grand entrance under a blue-sky canopy amid a wealth of sunshine—slipping in like a shining-faced ingénue in a diaphanous green gown.
When April arrives there’s no doubt the seasonal corner has been turned, no question that spring has come with irrefutable certainty. Every soft breeze is laden with the unmistakable message—a vernal richness of leavened earth and quickened sap. The heady air carries the fecund energy of woods and wetlands, streams and meadows miraculously rejuvenated by warming sun. Each drawn breath seems sweetened by the burgeoning season.
Spring ephemerals are starting to bloom—delicate flowers in pastel shades straight from a childhood Easter basket.
Buds have appeared on almost every woody plant, from lilacs to maples, honeysuckle to hackberry. Forsythia blooms gleam their gold. Grass glows in brilliant emerald, while willows turn an electric yellow, as if taking a direct charge from the midday sun. Soon many of those buds will flower, while others—tiny, tight curls of new leaves—will unfurl and grow rapidly, almost before our eyes. The distant view through a woods will foreshorten as the field-of-view closes in, drawn into an ever-smaller circle.
April brings resurrection—stirring life that reawakens, emerges, renews, begins. The revivifying earth is thus a verification of hope and a symbol of promise that seeds our belief in a truth eternal.
What a lovely, wonderful, glorious day to be an April fool!
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10 comments:
You don't ascribe to T. S. Eliot's line that "April is the cruelest month of all"?
I certainly hope that April will bring some warmth. This has been thus far a cold miserable dreary spring. My fear, of course, is that the weather will suddenly rush headlong into summer, and we will miss those gentle breezes, with all their messages, of which you speak
KGMom…
Nope, not at all. I agree with Jesse Stuart in “Hold April”:
Hold on to April; never let her pass!
Another year before she comes again
To bring us wind as clean as polished glass
And apple blossoms in soft, silver rain.
Hold April when there’s music in the air,
When life is resurrected like a dream,
When wild birds sing up flights of windy stair
And bees love alder blossoms by the stream.
* * * * * * * * *
April is one of my two favorite months of the year—the other being May. April cruel? On the contrary! I adore what Hal Borland said…that "April is a promise that May is bound to keep." April is the year's gift and blessing.
Grizz-
speaking of eloquent is the way you wrote of April's promise. Some words I must look up as their meaning is not in my realm although in context I know intuitively they are words of great compliment. Our 1st day of April was laden with big wet snow flakes and bouts of cold pouring rain - our wood stove is ablaze to keep out the chill - and yet the forsythia are golden, the grass is brightening, my butterfly bush and my lilac bush have buds - so through the big wet snow flakes and beyond the cold rain there is Spring holding firm. Thank you so much for your gifted writing that captures nature so eloquently and naturally.
Love to you
Gail
peace.....
Gail…
The nice day I wrote about earlier finally clouded up in late afternoon, and about 9:00 p.m. tonight we had a brief rain. It's cool and damp out (just came in from taking Moon out before I head to bed) but still a fine day to kick off April.
Sorry to hear you had snow, but I know the fire in the woodstove feels great—and I almost envy you that cheery blaze.
Don't sweat the words. I look words up all the time. I don't write to impress anyone with my vocabulary…but to tell them a story; to reach off the page or screen and pull them into the tale or scene, make them feel and see and hear the world and place—the situation—I'm relating. Words are just tools, part of the alchemy to make the magic work.
Your description of your first of April is so much like what I saw in my granddaughter today. Just short of her first birthday she is a wonderful compliment to the burgeoning spring. The first steps, the first words; so much to observe and delight in.
...Tramp
Tramp…
What a lovely comparison—and so apt. And what a wonderful season for granddaughters and grandfathers!
Spring beauties.... spring IS springing forth!!!!! You're no fool. This I know to be true.... Enjoy the season!
Giggles…
Nice day here, though tomorrow, when I might be able to sneak away for a few hours outdoors, we're supposed to have rain. On the other hand, what would spring be without rain?
I am a fool for April, and May…and this whole glorious season.
I enjoyed your opening sentence, Grizz.
Spring Beauties are still in tight buds here and I'm told many flowers are in full bloom in Columbus, just 30 miles south. Sometimes Ohio feels like Texas to me in terms of expanse, such huge differences over the miles.
Jain…
Late this afternoon, as I was returning home, I drove along a narrow, heavily-wooded backroad that overlooks the river, but is a bit upstream from the cottage. Nice loamy banks along the way; great wildflower habitat. Not a spring beauty was in sight…but a few Virginia bluebells were up and all but opened. It should have been the other way around—beauties before bluebells. But that's Ohio, I guess. You don't have to drive far to encounter different blooming cycles, little mini-regions or isolated habitats where something that isn't in bloom just up the road is going like crazy. Sure, there's a big difference between the Ohio River hill country and the Lake Erie shores…but you often don't have to cross a county line to find real differences, as well.
BTW, I saw my first warbler of the season this morning as I was eating breakfast, a male "butter butt" that spent only a moment poking around the feeders and such in the big box elder by the entryway door.
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