The Strength of Spring

In Tucson, the first day of spring on the calendar can go by unnoticed, minor.  The weather became gorgeous (with a few lion-like interruptions) back in February.  Signs like worms, green growth, and promising buds barely took a break for winter.  Yet, just this week strong signs emerged:

• Our family kept the windows open day and night without getting too hot or too cold.
• Mexican evening primroses shared their first flowers of the year (the light pink discs in the title image) in my backyard.
• Bell pepper seedlings decided to start, after several other sheltered trays of seeds had refused.
• Texas Mountain Laurels popped their purple color and grape-like scent all over town.
• The first – and very sweet – sweet peas bloomed not in the garden bed but from volunteers stubbornly growing where they were not planted.

Yes, it’s officially the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.   Happy Spring Equinox today, March 20^th!  The position of the Earth in its annual journey around the sun, combined with the constant 23.4^o tilt of the Earths axis, causes light to directly shine on the equator.  Sorry, the day and night are not quite equal as the name implies, because of refraction.  Check out timeanddate.com for some user-friendly explanations and illustrations, or to search specifics for your own location.  Also try Nature to You’s “5 Sweet Seasons” workshop at a Pima County Public Library in 2019.  Make a marmalade model of sunlight spread not-too-thick and not-too-thin on Tucson this time of year! 

Spring cleaning is a strong force in our home right now.  Is that a tradition for you?  Usually we reserve our flurry of cleaning for just before Thanksgiving.  This year, in anticipation of growing our family, we’re all helping reclaim the playroom as a bedroom, secure chemicals, and box up some of our book bounty.  This has stirred up so much dust that we go breathe pollen-laden outside air for relief!  Right now for instance: the sight of a hummingbird at my penstemon rewards me for resting and writing on the back patio after a day of sorting and shifting.  

Some plants also remind me of the bounty of rain we received this past winter as well as the hard freezes that recharge life cycles:

• A cheerful yellow bloom on my first successful desert marigold transplant
• Lupines that sprang back after front yard repairs, thanks to the species’ tenacity as well as the return of rain
• Fresh leaves at the base of Mexican sunflower, butterfly mist, and bloodflower in the butterfly garden, after last year’s branches froze severely in February
• Fresh leaves and already bright red flowers beneath dead twigs, on the honeysuckle that had grown huge in last year’s scarce frost and then got put in check this year

So many ways to observe spring!  Whether by the weather, the calendar, activities, or flowers and greenness, how does Spring 2019 stand out for you?