Welcoming back the prodigal sun ~ April 27, 1994

by David Heiller

When you wait for something for a long time, the wait is usually worth it. That was the case last Saturday: like a starving person who stumbles onto a church potluck dinner. We’ve had the longest wait for spring that people can remember, and when spring finally hit on April 22, it hit hard and good.

Mother Nature had teased us with pseudo-spring early this year. The original snow pack melted in 60-degree weather in mid-March. But then we had 13 inches of snow on March 27, and two below zero weather on April 3, and snow on April eight, 12, 16, 18 (six inches) and 21. My wife grimly recorded this on the kitchen calendar.

So people were looking at Saturday’s sky like a prodigal sun, ready to forgive and rejoice and kill the fatted calf, or at least hold a potluck dinner.

I sensed it right away, when I saw the sun shining into the bedroom at 6:30. I was out in the woods by 7, pulling taps from the maple trees. Last year, which many people considered a late spring, we boiled our last sap on April eight. This year it was April 22.

From then on, it was non-stop spring chores: digging parsnips, putting plastic on the greenhouse, rearranging the garage, getting a load of pea rock from Stanley Bonk, fixing the hose in the basement, raking gravel off the lawn where the snow plow had deposited it like a glacier.

At first all these chores made me tense. There was so much to do. Where should I start? But as I went from task to task, it dawned on me that it didn’t really matter what I did. It all had to get done, and it all would get done sooner or later. The sun was shining. Why not just work and enjoy it? So I did.

Swing by your knees on the ladder?
Why not Spring finally sprung!

I guess it was work. My back tells me that. But I couldn’t have been more happy and relaxed.

And when I heard the frogs peeping for the first time, I knew it was officially spring. (Cindy happily writes the date we hear the frogs on our calendar. Last year was April 12; 1987 was April 8; 1991 was April 4.)

The kids sensed spring too. Normally on Saturday morning, they watch cartoons for a couple hours. But Malika, age nine, and her friend, Kristen, were out of the house by 9 a.m., and they didn’t go back in all day, except to change clothes.

First they were “old fashioned” women, dressed in long skirts and aprons and each carrying a little old fashioned baby. I tried to get them to help me with some old fashioned chores, like shoveling pea rock into the greenhouse, but they preferred to have a picnic lunch under the apple tree instead.

Then they changed into modern dresses. Then it was swimming suits. They sunbathed on towels and stuck their feet in the stock tank. It was a joy just watching them play.

Spring: it’s been a long wait, but boy are we glad you’ve finally made it.