Winter Wonderland

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Today was a winter day that only happens in Athens, Ohio: sunny, warm, breezy - not at all grey, nor blustery cold, nor with a biting wind. Rather, today was pleasant, and all things detected it.

I believe that right about this time of year, the birds understand that spring is coming because their songs have an extra "oomph" to them that all but eludes me to describe, yet I can hear it plain as day. Rabbits get restless and make daring games of tag through backyards and across streets. The soil warms and the whole earth lets up a soggy sigh of warm relief. Why even now, spring flowers are breaking through the softened dirt to herald a coming season of growth, and it puts a bounce in my step and a gleam in my eye.

I love flowers. Can I just put that out there and have it not be weird? Do you know what an adventure it is for me to go walking in the woods with a little green book of flowers, searching for a little green plant confidently growing out in the elements? What you must understand to truly understand me, is that the clay of these hills is in my blood, and just as the forest sucks up water from the earth, I suck up these little moments when I am privy to the silent witness of a changing season. I live for days like today, when, upon a lawn overgrown with woodbine and ivy, I met an old friend. I'm speaking, naturally, of a flower: snowdrop!


A true harbinger of spring is Galanthus nivalis, and as Snowdrop begins to bloom, so to do other flowers.


Daffodils in a sheltered nook by McCracken Hall are 4 inches tall and pushing out flower buds.



Bittercress has been producing showy rosettes of leaves since December in the yard of my house. With all these signs of spring popping up around me, what could it have been but an extraordinary winter's day in Athens?

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