March 2025 SOLC–Day 13
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Even though I’ve been feeling like Winter is still entrenched, there are signs of spring everywhere if you look. The temperatures climbed up to near 50˚F twice this week, and students immediately took that as an invitation to wear shorts. Even some staff were exposing their ankles. The first sight of those sun-deprived limbs always reminds me so much of seedlings first breaking through the earth…anemic and hopeful!
There are other signs of spring about as well. Bright orange “Frost heave” and “Bump!” signs have sprung up along the roads. There are daffodils for sale at the grocery store. Something has woken up and is now robbing my suet feeders and knocking down the seed feeders. I suspect raccoons but Kurt did see a possum by our house the other day, so the jury is still out. At any rate, the animals are stirring, too!
In the biggest recent change, Daylight Savings is now in place, and it’s still light when I get home from school. (We won’t talk about the dark when I leave bit right now, because this is supposed to be a relatively hopeful slice.)
“Hey, Kurt, want to go for a walk?” I asked as I came in the door earlier this week.
“No, but I will,” he said. On the mostly better side of a nasty, tenacious virus, his enthusiasm hadn’t quite bounced back into shape yet. Also, he’s sick of winter and cold and more than ready for spring.
.“It’s windy,” I warned, ” but really pretty. It feels good!”
He glanced at me and then outside a bit dubiously. “I probably need to put on long johns,” he Eeyored.
I checked my phone. “The feels-like temps are in the low 40s. Hey, that’s not too bad!” I pumped up the enthusiasm in my voice.
“Ok,” he conceded, “but I might want to turn back early.”
I didn’t really care. I just wanted to get outside and get back into the habit of our afternoon/evening walks.
Soon, we were off. We chatted as we walked, and about a quarter mile down the street, we came across two more signs of spring’s advance: a flock of robins and numerous tapped maple trees.
“Look at all these signs of spring,” I enthused.
He huddled into his coat.
We walked a bit longer, noticing the mounting evidence of pileated woodpeckers hard at work on some neighborhood trees. Kurt pointed up ahead, “Look! There it goes!” We watched it swoop away. The wind sent leaves skimming across the road in front of us.
“Doesn’t the sun feel great?” I PollyAnnaed a bit more. (Warming sun=yet another sign of spring!)
“It’d feel better if I weren’t cold,” he responded.
Kurt made a valiant effort, but called it at about a half mile from home. We turned and crossed the road to walk back.
Before long, we both were surprised to see another sign of spring…sort of. By the side of the road lay a very fresh bunch of asparagus in a clear plastic bag.
What?!
“I wonder where that came from!” I said.
Kurt laughed. “I can just imagine some kid unrolling the window and tossing it out when his mother wasn’t looking.
‘Why’s the window down?’ she’d ask.
‘I don’t know,’ he’d answer.”
“Right,” I continued, and once they got home, she’d be like, ‘Where in the world did that asparagus go? I swear I bought asparagus.’ ”
We continued to riff on this the rest of the way home, fully entertaining ourselves with our imagined scenarios.
It was a good walk, and here’s hoping it’s the first of many.
I can’t help but wonder what we’ll see next time.
Nix the comfort zone 