Minnesota Spring

It is freezing today.

I have really become immune to Minnesota winters. But Minnesota springs are just unbearable. You get through five months of arctic weather and then you come into March with visions of green grass shoots in your eyes and the smell of mud and slush and the hint of warmer winds in your nose... And then you wake up and look out the window to find a new layer of fluffy, white snow, just enough to cover the inches of dirty snow that have carried you through the winter. It used to be that there were more feet of snow, that there was some warmth for playing in snowpants and mittens. Or at least it seemed that way. Global warming seems to have combined slightly warmer temperatures with decreased precipitation here in the MinneApple. Ick. That's really all have to say about that.

But there is hope. I can taste my garden already. I can feel the round, ripe cherry and plum tomatoes in my hands. I remember my children squishing the overripe ones underfoot and between their toes. The morning glories that we pulled right before they blossomed. Novice gardeners, only second year vets, who didn't realize that the periwinkle blue blossoms open only after the summer season seems to be at its end. We will wait this year. I am determined to try dahlias again. And to remember basil this year. And to enjoy every moment of it. Even as the kids pull down all of the other fences in the community garden, and taste veggies from other plots. Because that is the joy of summer. The warmth and the joy and the warmth.