It will be over soon enough

It seems to me that people are in too much of a rush to have summer arrive. We are, after all, still welcoming spring and trying hard to forget the not-so-distant past, winter. We are just getting used to the longer days and having it still light outside at eight o'clock in the evening.

We are still taking delight in the fact that we no longer need to walk out our front doors with layer upon layer of clothing and heavy boots on, to try to keep warm enough to scrape the cars clear of ice and snow. Some of us will even pause to watch and listen to the robins singing while they run across the front yard in their long black stockings. It is not yet the May two-four weekend and people are planting geraniums in their deck pots and some have even started to plant garden goodies. At almost every convenience store you can see pots after pot of those bright geranium flowers in every hue of red, pink and purple. All the garden centres are clamouring for your attention and are offering acres of multicoloured pansy's along with bright yellow marigolds, flowering ficus trees and cute little garden gnomes.

Hmmm....I think it is too soon for planting earthly delights. For many years, we used to live beside a very old German couple who had been working the earth from the time that they were each old enough to pick weeds as children. Otto and Mrs. Schneiderite would always tell us not to plant before the long weekend in May because the weather could still turn cold. Hubby John and I still live by those words after all these many years. We both feel that if you plant too soon, before all chance of a late frost has past, you run the risk of having to possibly replant. Yes, I know that daffodils and tulips are bursting out all over the place. The lilacs look like they are going to have a good season. It's not too warm for them and they've had a good root soaking from all the snow we had over the winter. People are outside, raking their just defrosted lawns, pulling out last years growth to make room for this years green carpet. But technically we are still in spring mode and truth be told, it's not so late in the season that we still couldn't get a covering of snow. It sure seemed cold enough for it this past week. So even though the birds are singing and making new nests for their soon-to-be birdlings, remember not to rush your summer as it will be over soon enough.

To the Thawing Wind by Robert Frost
Come with rain, O loud Southwester!

Bring the singer, bring the nester;

Give the buried flower a dream;

Make the settled snow-bank steam;

Find the brown beneath the white;

But what e'er you do to-night,

Bathe my window, make it flow,

Melt it as the ice will go;

Melt the glass and leave the sticks

Like a hermit's crucifix;

Burst into my narrow stall;

Swing the picture on the wall;

Run the rattling pages o'er;

Scatter poems on the floor;

Turn the poet out of door.