 Sunnyside Gardens / Edith's Journal
Looking on the Sunnyside
March 6, 2008
The season turned today. I first noticed after the alarm rang and I lay there with Nellie, our four month old long haired Chihuahua, curled up in the crook of my arm. I could hear it. The neighbor’s dog barked faintly in the distance. Nellie picked up her head and pricked up her ears, but decided it wasn’t close enough to get concerned about. It was the birds that told me. Louder than usual, the crows, blue jays, chickadees, mourning doves and a couple I would need my birding friend, Ellie, to identify were more of a concern to Nellie and made me take note.
I hustled downstairs, not daring to put the pee machine down. I pulled my long waxed riding coat on over my nightgown feeling some sense of propriety and slid my bare feet into my moc- crocs and out we went. And there it was: Spring!
Even though yesterday’s Tuesday into Wednesday weekly storm had left a sparking layer of ice on every single twig, even though my feet crunched in the tire chopped layer of crust that had formed over the fresh half inch of snow in the drive, it was still plain as day. The birds with their urgent, yet cheery calls, each trying to outdo the other in exclamation was the herald that should have tipped off even the most hurried of souls shoving off for work. I was not the only one to notice. Nellie, who usually pees the second her feet hit the ground, was so excited she didn’t let go for at least fifteen minutes. Just yesterday, I would have been agonizingly cold. But, today as I faced away from the squinting, wrinkle causing brightness of the sun toward the azure blueness of the western sky, I could feel the sun’s warmth on my shoulders and smell the familiar English smell of the oil in my coat coming to life. My feet, bare inside my well vented moc-crocs were warm as toast separated from the ice underneath.
We did our loops, Nellie and I, around and around in the drive, she with her nose first drawing deep breaths of scent from the snowy ground and then, with ears up, sniffing high in the air. Finally, the reality of the moment set in and Nellie did her thing. Her reward for “peeing outside, good dog” is to get back inside to the feeding bowl - now! She bounded for the door and I reluctantly followed after, not anxious to leave behind this first taste of what is to come. Under those 6 foot snow banks that line my drive, life is beginning. Under the three feet of chilly white blanket over the nursery pots, I imagine live plants sprouting with new, soft green leaves. As I type, out my window the mourning doves line the branch of the big maple. They are preening, not just huddling. Like a bunch of fine ladies trying on Easter bonnets, they tuck in their loose feathers and wait, looking ahead to the glory of Spring.
Copyright March 2008
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