No doubt about it, Spring is on its way. It may have a few more stops and starts before Winter is behind us, but the birds aren’t the only ones singing their Springtime song.
It’s quite amazing, in this day and age of technology, how the weather still affects our lives.
I can feel the shift as people get ready to shake off the layers of clothing they’ve worn since last November and let the sunshine warm the near-frozen blood in their veins.
Sort of like my crocuses and hyacinths, which I hope to see again soon.
We certainly do make a noticeable shift from Winter to Summer, from indoor activities (many of us) to outdoor - even if it’s just sitting on the porch.
While it’s still only the early part of March, gardeners are planting the vegetable and flower seeds they ordered right after New Years. Stores that stock yard and garden items quickly packed up the snowblower display and set up the patio furniture. And the pond equipment. Lawn mowers. Hoses, rakes, shovels and everything else needed to make backyard life complete.
Moods change, and not always for the better. Sometimes people who were content to bear out the winter quietly come out of their dens in the Spring and notice all sorts of things around them that aren’t to their liking. People who were kept indoors by the cold weather now spend their time outside making trouble, as evidenced every year by the Police Report.
But mainly, Spring is greeted here by a collective sigh of relief.
By the time June arrives, the good weather is old news and Winter but a distant, bad memory. Until it rolls around once more, but let’s not go there just yet.
In our part of British Columbia, we relish the long, hot seasons by passing on the indoor activities - unless you’re one of those unfortunate souls who are allergic to good weather or can’t wander too far from the air conditioner.
As the birds begin their migration back from their Winter vacations, we do our own little Springtime song and dance.
Wendy Coomber is editor of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal