The spring equinox took place this week, that time when the when the sun is directly above the equator. Where we live this marks a changing of the season, one of the four which we are privileged to experience. My husband and I were discussing the blue sky this morning, wondering where the forecasted rain was. (Such a Canadian thing, the polite discussion of the weather.) This weighty conversation lead to pondering whether March had come in like a lion this year which might presage the leaving thereof like a lamb.
Days and dates are very slippery things these days so I decided to trust the memory of the Weather Network instead. I saw that for March 3rd statistics showed an example of March coming like a lion in 1985.
It seemed to me that February roared a bit at the end because we had snow on the ground at the first of the month but nary a whimper in the first week of March. The forecast for the rest of the month bodes well for the 'lamb' part regardless.(Apparently today's rain may now make an appearance on Friday.)
The Farmers Almanac deems 'In like a Lion, out like a Lamb' to be 'weather folklore'. Adages or sayings like this have been around for many centuries and are based on a time when people were more in tune with the cycles of the seasons and the earth's moods. Patterns were noted and remembered because their survival depended on it.
The origin of this one is 'hidden in the mists' but some believe it to be based on the position of the constellations in March, with Leo, the 'Lion' rising in the east at the beginning of the month, and Aries, a mature 'Lamb' setting in the west at the end.
It is also thought that there was an ancient belief in the 'balance' of life which interpreted means that if I have to shovel a lot at the beginning of March, Nature will balance this out by allowing me to put my shovel in the shed at the end of March. With March being the variable and fickle month that it is, I suppose that this could prove out at least some of the time. Especially when the start of March is still considered winter, and the end, Spring.
I am ever pessimistic though as when I looked through my photos still saved on my laptop, I found this one;
In balance though, I also found this one
from 30 March 2018, with Winter aconite blooming, so perhaps the odds are good.
Whatever happens in the next few days, it will not change that fact that Spring is arriving. On the hillsides and sides of roads, Colt's foot, the first of the wildflowers, is beginning to bloom. Their sunny, yellow faces are so welcome.
Snowdrops are opening.
Red-winged blackbirds, starlings and grackles have returned,
I saw my first Comma butterfly in the woods, fresh from sleeping the winter away in the leaf litter.
The robins that migrated to warmer climes are returning to be seen on the lawns and heard singing in the morning.
Another familiar old adage is, 'April showers bring May Flowers'. This was actually written as 'March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers' in 1886, but echoed a poem from 1610. This is once more an observation of the progression of the seasons; that things happen in order, one building or preparing for the next.
Hopeful, reassuring...Spring.
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