It's Easter this weekend, and it couldn't come at a better time. These past few days, and today in particular, really feel as though things are awakening. The snow cover is cracking open and receding on all sides. The ground is again visible, after months and months of snow, and everywhere in my neighbourhood living things are perking up.
In the ditches, there are small green leaves of water-plants beginning to poke up out of the mud. The tips of willow trees suddenly went "Phwoing!" and issued tiny white pussy-willow buds. In our garden beds, some of which are now out from under the sugary, granulated snow, green nubs of daylilies and daffodils are emerging. The seeds I've started indoors have germinated, and though they are fragile and tiny yet, they have the living force of a newborn baby; they are present, urgent, ALIVE.
I just went to dump the compost, both because the bucket was filling up and because I needed some fresh air after making some phone calls all afternoon. I needed to take my mind off lists and organizing, and bring it outdoors where the wind could blow through me.
I put on gumboots and walked across the muddy, squishy-wet lawn, and kicked through the vestiges of snow. I dumped the compost, then set the bucket down by the pile and went walking to the back garden, a section of garden that's a five-minute walk from the house. There I saw that the beehive is completely uncovered now, as the beekeeper has been by to take the winter wrapping off it. I knelt by it, and saw small piles of black bee bodies: the bees who died over the winter didn't go far from the hive to perish. There was a faint, but heady scent of honey coming from the blue stack of supers.
I walked through the garden, where only two weeks ago I was on snowshoes, on a two-foot layer of snow that covered everything. Now I could see some beds bare. In the last year and a half, I've become more of a gardener than I ever was; I've started plants and grown them from seed to fruit, and I've turned new beds and weeded the old ones. And I'm beginning to see how this is tying me to this land, which means that in spring, when things begin to waken, I waken with it. It's the beginning of the New Year, I realized this afternoon. Without the fanfare of January 1st, yes. But just as important.
Are things awakening where you are? Does it affect you? How do you feel about it?
Also, how do you celebrate Easter? Do you decorate eggs, hide chocolate around the house, go to church? What will be your ritual this weekend?
Whatever it is you will be doing, enjoy it.
