This week is officially the start of spring 2023. The weather forecast for the first day of spring was for 2 °C (36 °F) and flurries. The beginning of spring can be difficult living in a cold and snowy climate, but there are also beautiful aspects as well.
The garden is still covered in several feet of snow, although there are signs of slow but ongoing melting. Every day I walk along the edges of the newly retreating snow banks, eagerly looking for signs of life emerging to greet the spring. To my surprise, I am starting to see daffodils and tulips starting to rise from the soil. I could also see the green foliage of the wild pansies, which are always the earliest to flower and the last to fade in the autumn.
While my impatience for spring to start in full and for winter to fade into memory exaggerates the spring melt into an agonisingly slow process, in reality the snow disappears quite fast and the garden’s busy time starts. There is a deceptiveness to the early spring in the north, where there is the feeling of lots of time to start planning garden projects and starting seeds, but then all of a sudden the snow disappears and the ground thaws, and along comes the feeling of not having enough time to get everything done that I want to do.
One of my favourite things about living in a four-season location is to watch the dramatic changes in the landscape from one season to the next. The changes are not so bad if you learn to work with the characteristics of the seasons. Winter was a good time to rest and dream of what I want my garden to be this year, but now that it is spring, the urge to move towards the creation and growth of those dreams begins.
The Heron and Rose 