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| Pear Buds |
"Some people find fall depressing, others hate spring. I’ve
always been a spring person myself. All that growth, you can feel Nature
groaning, the old bitch; she doesn’t want to do it, not again, no, anything but
that, but she has to. It’s a fucking torture rack, all that budding and
pushing, the sap up the tree trunks, the weeds and the insects getting set to
fight it out once again, the seeds trying to remember how the hell the DNA is
supposed to go, all that competition for a little bit of nitrogen; Christ, it’s
cruel." John Updike, The Witches of Eastwick
I have read several books by John Updike and I love his
sensual somewhat erotic descriptions of otherwise mundane occurrences. In the
brief quote above, he calls attention to sap, weeds and insects most people
view those things as nuisances.
I’m a little late in writing this post… Easter is directly
linked with the first day of spring because it is always the first Sunday,
following the full moon, after the spring equinox.
In the northern hemisphere, the beginning of spring is
considered to be the time when day and night are roughly equal. I was watching
the news on the 1st of March and the weatherman called that day the
first day of “meteorological spring” which I had never heard of the term before,
but it means the months are divided into three months most closely related to
temperature. The three warmest months are summer and the three coldest are
winter. In other words, March, April and May are considered to be
meteorological spring.
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| Blueberry Flowers |
I find it strange that many cultures do not view the spring
and vernal equinoxes as a significant time to divide the seasons. The Chinese calendar and Celtic tradition place the first day of spring between the winter
solstice and spring equinox or around the beginning of February. Imbolc refers
to the Celtic spring with etymology possibly to the old Irish world meaning “in
the belly” linking to the lambing season. There are several megaliths in
Ireland aligned with the rising sun during the time of Imbolc constructed
during the Neolithic Age (≈10,200-2000 BC). It’s interesting to note that
Imbolc was also a time for weather divination by watching to see if snakes and
badgers came out of their dens. Groundhog Day can almost be considered a type
of weather divination and is held roughly the same time as Imbolc. Groundhogs
are a little safer to watch than snakes and badgers but native only to North
America.
On researching spring, I came across an interesting Gaelic
myth about Cailleach she is a weather, ancestor and creator deity. She is
considered to be the Queen of Winter and gathers firewood on the Imbolc. If the
weather is fair it means she can gather a lot of wood in preparation for
creating a long winter. In contrast, if the weather is bad it means Cailleach
is still asleep and not gathering firewood so the winter will be short. A
specific day is used for weather divination for a season.
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| Sugar Snap Pea Sprouts |
I included three photos of how the first day of spring on
March 20th looked this year. The pear tree is usually tricked by the
first warm spell and blooms early in the season which usually results in no
pears because the last frost for where I live is around the beginning of May.
The individual blueberry bush is rather early for flowers and was the only one
in bloom. Blueberries can handle cold down to around 28°F, and I have yet to
have a year without blueberries so they should be fine. Sugar snap peas are
extremely cold tolerant and can tolerate quite a bit of snow I sowed the pea
seeds on March 7th. Some people in western NC begin them as early as
the end of February.
