Every thing has been slowly waking up in the yard and garden but with today's weather of 74 degrees things will change rapidly. I worked outside for several hours. The sunshine and warm breeze felt wonderful. As I worked I was able to look for "whispering stirrings and hints" of the changing times and season. There are visible signs!
There's something in the air
That's new and sweet and rare—
A scent of summer things,
A whir as if of wings.
There's something, too, that's new
In the color of the blue
That's in the morning sky,
Before the sun is high.
And though on plain and hill
'Tis winter, winter still,
There's something seems to say
That winter's had its day.
And all this changing tint,
This whispering stir and hint
Of bud and bloom and wing,
Is the coming of the
spring.
And to-morrow or to-day
The brooks will break away
From their icy, frozen sleep,
And run, and laugh, and leap.
And the next thing, in the woods,
The catkins in their hoods
Of fur and silk will stand,
A sturdy little band.
And the tassels soft and fine
Of the hazel will entwine,
And the elder branches show
Their buds against the snow.
So, silently but swift,
Above the wintry drift,
The long days gain and gain,
Until on hill and plain,—
Once more, and yet once more,
Returning as before,
We see the bloom of birth
Make young again the earth.
"One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in. The ice in the pond at length begins to be honeycombed, and I can set my heel in it as I walk. Fogs and rains and warmer suns are gradually melting the snow; the days have grown sensibly longer.... I am on the alert for the first signs of spring...."
