Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Change Is A'Coming

We here in Iowa have had snow on the ground since the beginning of December. I mean, serious snow -- a foot deep with 3-4 foot high drifts, never melting for three months straight. We have been longing and longing for the snow to go away. Only a couple weeks ago did it warm up enough for it to start gradually melting. And there was much rejoicing.

Well, perhaps not "much" rejoicing. Because the snow left behind it mud. It also has rained off and on for a lot of the past couple weeks, and there's been very little sunshine, so the ground is saturated. The grass we thought would look so glorious to us is matted down and mushy -- almost moldy looking in places. Everything is brown and soppy and gross. Even the remaining piles of snow (yes, there are still many) are grungy with dirt. It's just hard to face the world with a smile when you're surrounded by such dreariness.

This morning when Eastin and I left the house to walk to the bus stop (OK, there's a positive -- it is warm enough to walk to the bus stop again), we just happened to step out of the house just as a huge flock of geese was flying overhead. (I assume they were geese from the honking.) And I mean a HUGE flock. One V-formation after another spread from east to west as far as we could see (which in Iowa is a long ways), and more kept coming up behind us. We watched the formations shifting shape as they moved northwest. OH, people . . . it was breathtaking. Even Eastin got choked up: "I need a tissue!" And I took the opportunity to teach her a little Yiddish. I'm all ferclempt!

So, perhaps winter really is ending. This may be the most anticipated spring I've ever known.

1 comment:

Vianelli and Eastin said...

That was so Beautiful! Amazing and everything it was so nice to actually see birds!