Spring arrives with the same exhilaration I feel when I
receive a gift of flowers. I have said time and again in this blog how much I
love spring and how it is my favorite of the seasons. I particularly love the
hopeful, spring-green color that emerges in the hillsides when everything
starts to wake up and come back to life for another season of growing and
blooming.
While I know that spring officially arrives in March, in our
cold climate, spring doesn’t start to make itself obvious until sometime in
April.
My love of spring began when I was a child, perhaps because
my late mother and I enjoyed spring birthdays. More likely, however, I love
spring because my mom embraced the season fully with a joy that could only rub
off on those around her.
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| My late mother, Barb Naidl (right), and me, posing in front of one of the lilac bushes in our backyard. |
Spring meant an ever-cascading array of flowers in our
home—lilacs, lilies of the valley, branches of forsythia and flowering current,
and stems of iris, some dark purple and white and others brown and yellow. All
of these flowering beauties grew without much assistance in our spacious
backyard. They seemed to know they were welcome there, so they flourished pretty
much on their own.
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| Me, lounging in our backyard. The beds of iris are visible behind me. |
Beginning in April all the way through May, Mom would fill
antique pitchers of all sizes with flowers, including one really large white porcelain
pitcher that nestled perfectly into a large porcelain bowl, even though the
bowl was not its original mate. That pitcher was so heavy that it required two
hands to carry it safely.
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| This heavy bowl and pitcher held sprays of beauty during all seasons. |
My favorite spring flowers were the lilacs and the lilies of
the valley because of their heady scent. Mom would carefully cut, trim and then
arrange small branches heavy with lavender and white lilacs in her precious
pitcher collection and then place them strategically in nearly every room in
our house, thus filling each space with fragrance.
There would be delicate milk glass vases filled with lilies
of the valley, offering a lovely white-on-white contrast to the dark walnut
antique commode chests on which they would be featured in our home’s living room.
My mother loved antiques, so our home was rich with them.
Spring also meant the early budding of our yard’s three
willow trees. Although they tend to be messy, I’ve always loved weeping
willows. In the spring, they are among the first trees to hint that the seasons
are changing, with their delicate yellow hue.
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The weeping willows in our yard provided a place for me to play and imagine.
In the early spring, they were among the first trees to hint at spring when they
turned a gentle shade of yellow-green while everything else was still brown. |
Violets played a big part in my childhood springs and they
still do today. As if overnight, our backyard would transform into a sea of
white and purple as the violets began to bloom. Our family would wait to mow
the lawn for the first time in the spring until the violets had had their time
to shine.
Aside from nature’s welcoming changes, spring also meant a change
in wardrobe, particularly represented by a new dress to wear to church on
Easter. I can still remember how special I felt in one particular Easter outfit.
The dress was made of a linen blend, the top portion of it white splashed with large,
navy blue polka dots and the skirt portion plain navy. Over the dress was a
matching navy linen blend coat. I wore a white hat decorated with a wide, navy blue
grosgrain ribbon. The outfit was topped off with white anklets, white shoes and
white gloves. I felt snazzy!
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One of my favorite new Easter outfits from my childhood.
I felt so dressed up with my hat and matching dress and coat. |
Despite my fond memories of new Easter clothes and the
remembrances of how special I felt in them, when I reflect on springs past, it’s
the flowers I recall most vividly and how my mom would bring them inside to
transform our home into a special, fragrant and lovely place.
There are signs of spring sprouting everywhere now. Spend
some time in nature, watching the changes unfold, the flowers bloom and the increasing
signs of earth’s reawakening.
And as the earth transforms, contemplate what that
reawakening of spring might mean for you.
