March is springing up all over North and South Carolina. For the last three months we have been enjoying daffodils bravely pushing against the cold. But now the redbud and pear trees are blossoming and the wildflowers are coming out.
Sunday was technically the first day of spring. In Ohio it was a date that gave hope more than promise. We couldn’t see the signs, but we knew they would be coming soon. In North and South Carolina, we have been seeing signs of spring for weeks now. The leaves are even coming out on the trees – they have that hint of bright green they get when the leaves are small and barely visible.
The discussion at the Visitors Center this week has been whether or not the dogwoods will bloom for Easter. They are commonly in bloom in South Carolina when Easter is in April. Because Easter is early this year, there is some question about whether or not they will be blooming. In Ohio we had a dogwood tree in our back yard that always bloomed for Mother’s Day.
Tom and I have been enjoying lots of sunshine and temperatures well into the 80s most days. I’m sure we would find the summers here oppressively hot and humid, but that is an advantage to living in a house on wheels – we can visit an area at its most delightful time of year.
March is springing up all around us and we are enjoying every beautiful minute.
A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.
