Sweet Lovers Love The Spring!

"In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours." ~Mark Twain

I might have counted one hundred and thirty seven up on the hill in Corning today! Leaving Deb's place in NJ after a weekend spent on the deck wearing just a light sweater, you can imagine my distress as I was driving up Rt. 81 toward Binghamton (in a sleeveless shirt no less) and started seeing snow along the side of the road. By the time I got onto Rt. 17 heading West along the PA border, I could no longer see the grass. And by the time I pulled off at the Corning exit, the snow was hitting the windshield forcing us all to slow down, turn on the wipers and crank up the heat!

The truth is, I absolutely love the tumultuous weather of Corning, the vibrant greens of Spring, the hot days and cool nights of Summer, the blazing colors of Fall, even the cold, silent snow-covered days of Winter. There's a wonderful anticipation in that moment right before you open the blinds on an early Spring morning when there's just no telling what you'll see beyond the glass! Will it be a steady, soaking rain or a bright, breezy morning? Will the grass be coated in frost or strikingly green and lush? Will the daffodils be reveling in the sun or stubbornly refusing to wake from their winter's sleep? No matter how familiar the view outside the window, the constantly changing weather always insures a wonderful surprise!

I admit, the winters are a bit longer here than we would like, and we often wish the sunny summer weather would stretch a few weeks further into the Fall, but there's nothing quite like the relief of a warm Spring day in Corning, and the Fall foliage around the Finger Lakes region is world renowned, drawing photographers from far and wide. The seasons have their own temperament and timing here on the hill, and no matter how much we may long and hope for Spring's arrival, it arrives on its own terms and will not be rushed. "Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself." (Proverbs)

I guess the crazy weather I drove into this afternoon is a reminder of this; perhaps it's also Spring's way of not so gently insuring we never take her for granted. Anne Bradstreet put it very well, comparing the coming of Spring after a hard winter to overcoming the bumps and hurdles along life's highway: "If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." Is this late Spring snow a quiet reminder that very often life's progress takes two steps forward, one step back?

I'm turning up the heat tonight, snuggling into my warm and cozy bed with a hot cup of tea and hoping, very much so, that the view out my window tomorrow morning will be of those stubborn daffodils resiliently holding their own against this white onslaught, determined to bloom as close to schedule as possible. The snow is wet and heavy tonight, so I expect there will be some branches from our ancient pines among the casualties of this late Spring storm. Although I hate to see them lying on the ground, still green and full of life, I'm respectful of nature's pruning and am confident the tree will continue to soar skyward despite the untimely loss.

The bright red leaves on this resilient young tree revived my hopes this evening, inspiring a promise that even in the midst of an unexpected snow storm, Spring is, indeed, on the way, sure to awaken our hearts and bring with it the colors, the warmth, the sunny renewal of life we're all longing for up here on the hill!

"It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o'er the green corn field did pass,
In the springtime, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring!"
-- As You Like It, William Shakespeare)