osprey_archer | Spring

Spring comes suddenly to Wisconsin. In Indiana, spring is a gradual thing that starts growing in early March, but in Wisconsin March had only vague signs of the end of winter: the snow melting, slow and patchy, off the yellow grass. Not until April did the snow stay melted, and then the grass grew so green that we joked we were in Ireland and hoped that it didn't snow again.

Only in mid-April does spring really start. Beds of small star-shaped blue flowers grow under the protection of trees and shrubs and houses. They aren’t bluebells, but they grow so thick that the beds look like bluebell woods.

It’s warm enough some days to walk outside in shirtsleeves. I start taking walks again, and as I walk past the not-bluebells I remember stories about fairies dancing in bluebell woods, with the bluebells ringing, and any human who heard them soon would die. We all hope that it doesn’t snow again.

Just a few days later, the trees have tiny leaves. The budding stage seems to have been entirely skipped: one morning I walk to breakfast and all the trees have a mist of bright green leaves. And suddenly the daffodils are blooming, whole banks of them bright yellow.

And yesterday morning, there were tulips. Not very many, and the outer petals still tight and pale, but the buds were seamed with red. Spring! Real spring! Storms of tulips by Wednesday!

…and then it snowed this morning. *facepalm*