{"id":6470,"date":"2012-04-27T10:51:49","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=6470"},"modified":"2012-04-27T10:51:49","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:51:49","slug":"who-stole-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=6470","title":{"rendered":"Who Stole Spring?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I’m glad I started writing about my garden<\/a> and about spring flowers<\/a>\u00a0last year when everything happened perfectly, beautifully as (I think) it should have.\u00a0 Gradually the winter\u00a0cold loosened its grip, allowing the warming\u00a0ground to admit crocus flowers first, then forsythia, then narcissus, then early daffodils, then later ones, then early tulips and later ones, and on through daisies,\u00a0Black-Eyed Susans and beyond.\u00a0 I started my garden accordingly, too: seeds tucked into their small cells, solitary,\u00a0monastic, under lights as they broke the soil’s surface and grew.\u00a0 Lettuces and broccoli, pea and leek\u00a0seeds\u00a0were first, then after they had vacated their cells for their new home in the garden, tomato and pepper and okra seeds took up their positions, awaiting their moment in the sun.<\/p>\n

This year was different from last, all\u00a0confused, haphazard.\u00a0\u00a0Spring lurched\u00a0clumsily along\u00a0like a parade\u00a0where the floats and bands and antique cars and horse troops leave\u00a0the staging area whenever they feel like it, long before the Grand Marshall’s driver even starts the car that should lead them all.\u00a0 The person with the clipboard and whistle and walkie-talkie, who usually tells the Easter parade of spring flowers and showers and blossoms and gradually warming\u00a0temperatures when to\u00a0take their turn,\u00a0was home with a cold or the flu or dropsy or sinusitis, maybe pleurisy or hay fever (tree pollen appeared before Palm Sunday: impossible!) or maybe just malaise.\u00a0 No one seemed to be taking charge of Spring’s appearance.\u00a0 The\u00a0mishmash jarred me.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The vernal equinox passed over a month ago.\u00a0\u00a0Why does that\u00a0day, when big cosmic doings, stars aligning, earth tilting just so, sun in position heralding a new season, pass virtually unnoticed and\u00a0un-remarked?\u00a0 I can’t understand why more people don’t marvel at\u00a0time’s\u00a0mile markers to pause and note its passing.\u00a0 Yet even if they had this year, they would have wondered, as I did, what had gone, well, if not wrong, at least differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I saw masses of green in my favorite perennial bulb beds around where I work instead of bright later tulips and other mid-spring flowers.\u00a0 I love the green, a vivid, vervant medicine\u00a0which heals me, body and soul, with its balm,\u00a0but missed the color.\u00a0 The cherry blossoms in town were here and gone in one week instead of the usual two-and-a-half or more, like a prankster who rings the doorbell, getting me up from supper for no good\u00a0reason but a laugh, soon forgotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So\u00a0I’m wondering if I should set the tomato and pepper plants in the ground now or wait a few more weeks.\u00a0 Got dice?<\/p>\n

Another view on this unusual spring we’ve had.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I’m glad I started writing about my garden and about spring flowers\u00a0last year when everything happened perfectly, beautifully as (I think) it should have.\u00a0 Gradually the winter\u00a0cold loosened its grip, allowing the warming\u00a0ground to admit crocus flowers first, then forsythia, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69,820],"tags":[1026,1027,660,97,1025],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6470"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6494,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470\/revisions\/6494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}